Three major projects in Bahrain have received global recognition after being chosen among the 100 most innovative and inspiring urban infrastructure projects in the world.

The recognition came in the second edition of KPMG's Infrastructure 100 report.

KPMG's Global Infrastructure Practice yesterday released the Infrastructure 100 World Cities Edition at the World Cities Summit in Singapore.

It provides an insight into the infrastructure projects that make great cities, with a particular focus on the innovations that make them Cities of the Future - places where people want to live and do business.

Profiles of the Askar Waste-to-Energy, the Bahrain Social Housing, and the Muharraq Wastewater Plant are all featured in this second edition, alongside other standout projects from around the globe.

The Bahraini projects beat off competition from hundreds of submissions to be selected by a regional judging panel.

'Urban infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century,' the report said.

'In Bahrain the government has recently announced its strategy to invest heavily in its domestic infrastructure in order to support growth while balancing the needs of the population, economy and the environment,' it said.

'The world's cities, which are home to more than half of the global population, are facing unprecedented pressure and demand for investment in infrastructure,' said KPMG in Bahrain partner and head of advisory Narayanan Ramachandran.

'These inspirational and innovative examples of infrastructure projects have radically altered the urban environment in Bahrain to provide residential and industrial facilities on a massive scale, which have been vital to economic growth and the diversification of the Bahrain economy,' he said.

The projects showcased in the KPMG Infrastructure 100 are made up of approximately 20 developments selected by judging panels of industry experts from five regions of the world including Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East and Africa.

Projects were then sorted into 10 categories including urban mobility, global connectivity, urban regeneration, education, healthcare, water, new and extended cities, recycling and waste management, urban energy infrastructure and communications infrastructure.

The five regional judging panels assessed hundreds of submissions on the following criteria: feasibility, social impact, technical and/or financial complexity, innovation and impact on society.

The Bahraini projects were highlighted in the recycling and waste management, urban regeneration and water categories, alongside projects such as the Energy Garden Project, Vancouver, the Rio Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro and the Jakarta Urgent Flood Mitigation.-TradeArabia News Service