Major new housing developments are on the way in Bahrain's Central Governorate with new projects in Tubli, Hawrat Sanad, Buhair, Salmabad, Isa town and Sitra, Housing Minister Bassim Al Hamer said.

However, he described MPs' demands to give priority to projects in Isa Town as unacceptable and accused parliament of missing the big picture.

'The housing requests from the Central Governorate are 30 percent of the total requests,' he said. 'That's a challenging number and we have several solutions to help reduce the waiting list there.”

'We have projects lined up for Tubli, Hawrat Sanad, Buhair and Salmabad and there are plans to replace the old apartment buildings in Isa Town with new ones. The ministry is working to have land reclaimed in Sitra early next year for a major housing project and in Salmabad we are currently working on a new town,' he added.

The minister was responding to a question by Isa Al Qadi, who alleged that housing needs in Isa Town were being neglected.

'Isa Town is locked from all sides and we can't have an expansion project there,' said Al Hamer. 'The problem has been ongoing for around two decades now and we want to develop the place, but are finding space to be a problem.'

Meanwhile, Works Minister Essam Khalaf blamed delays in building flyovers to replace a roundabout at the entrance to Nuwaidrat and another near the entrance to Bapco on problems acquiring private land.

He said the designs were ready, in response to a question by parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani.

Meanwhile, discussions on a new bill that will organise the extraction of sand from the seabed and its sale were halted yesterday after Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Minister Dr Juma Al Ka'abi claimed it was full of flaws. – TradeArabia News Service