The Friendship Causeway will strengthen Bahrain's position as a key access point for global firms to develop their business in the region, a senior official said.

The construction work on the causeway, which will link Bahrain and Qatar, is expected to start soon.

'The Friendship Causeway will strengthen Bahrain's position as the best place in the Middle East for companies to locate in order to develop their businesses across the GCC economies,' said Economic Development Board chief executive Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa.

'As a location for international companies, Bahrain is one of the most mature and well-established free markets in this rapidly growing economic region.

'Bahrain has a strong history of working closely with its neighbours and it is already linked by King Fahad Causeway to Saudi Arabia,' he said.

'The completion of this second causeway will be a welcome further addition to Bahrain's impressive air, sea and road links, and will provide many new opportunities for companies based in Bahrain to further develop their business, not only in Qatar but right across the GCC.'

Billed as the world's longest marine causeway, construction of the $3 billion project will be one of the most important infrastructure projects in the region.

When the bridge is completed in about four year's time, it will be more than 40km of twin carriageway running across 22km of viaducts over the sea and 18km of embankments.

Travel time from Qatar to Bahrain by car is expected to be reduced from four-and-a-half hours to around 30 minutes.

The causeway will also provide a connection for future high-speed freight and passenger rail lines between the countries.

There are also plans to extend the route to link Istanbul and Muscat.-TradeArabia News Service