Private developers are to turn Al Jazair beach in Bahrain into a modern tourism area, with hotels and other facilities.

Eighty per cent of the beach has been handed over to the Economic Development Board, which has hired a company to draw up a strategy for development by private investors, Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs minister Mansoor bin Rajab told MPs.

The 20 per cent which remains under the ministry's control is also being developed, to make it more attractive for families, he said.

This will cost BD90,000 ($239,769) over two years, said Bin Rajab.

He said that the ministry would spend BD30,000 this year on planting trees, constructing a walkway, installing shades and new lights, in addition to a family rest area.

The projects will cover an area of 5,000 square metres.

Another BD60,000 will be spent to separate proper chalets from barasti huts, with the chalets area being fenced and security guards being employed, said Bin Rajab.

'We will spend BD10,000 this year and BD50,000 next year,' he said.

Bin Rajab said that all these proposals were pending, awaiting consent from the Southern Municipal Council.

He told MPs at the public utilities and environment affairs committee last month that 80 per cent of Al Jazair Beach would be turned over for private investment, under the authority of the EDB.

He said only half a kilometre of the beach remained registered as municipal land, while 1.9 kilometres was now with the EDB.

He was responding yesterday to a question by parliament foreign affairs, defence and national security committee vice-chairman Abdulla Al Dossary on the development projects planned for Al Jazair Beach.

Bin Rajab told the Gulf Daily News after the session that the beach was in need of development, but without the public area under the ministry's authority being affected.

'The place is in need of hotels and other developments, which in the end will serve residents in that area, who have nothing there except the desert,' he said.-TradeArabia News Service