Bahrain authorities are look into ways of providing alternative entrances to the new Seef Mall, Muharraq, the first waterfront shopping destination in the kingdom.

As a first step, roads assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Huda Fakhro and roads planning and design director Kadhim Abdul Latif held a meeting with chairman of Muharraq Municipal Council Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Sinan, representative to the fourth constituency Sabah Al Dosari and Foad Al Khayyat from Seef Mall Management.

The Muharraq Municipal Council had been inundated with complaints about bottlenecks caused by the new Seef Mall Muharraq, in Arad, since its launch, thus forcing it to call for an urgent meeting on the opening day.

Residents living near the mall said they now had to negotiate large traffic queues just to reach their homes.

During the meeting, Al Sinan stressed that Muharraq Municipality continues to implement development projects that will improve Muharraq and stimulate the national economy.

Al Dosari referred to the importance of designing roads that properly serves people going into and out of the mall to alleviate traffic congestion along other roads in the vicinity.  

Fakhro pointed out that the ministry, in order to facilitate entering and existing from the mall, has implemented a number of urgent solutions, including the start of work on the first phase of the road located at the northern side of the mall (prior to the opening of the mall).

The newly implemented road will be connected to Avenue 40 using a traffic signal, she added.

According to Fakhro, 90 per cent of the detailed designs for the remaining parts of the project have been completed, prior to actual implementation.

Also, the first phase of Avenue 74 revamp will be implemented; where an integrated roads network will be constructed between Avenue 47, Avenue 45 and Avenue 28 (located at the southern side of the mall).

The project will alleviate traffic congestion along Avenue 40 and Avenue 29, by accommodating traffic coming from Hidd, Arad and the Halats.

The ministry is currently working on completing the detailed designs for this part of the project with bids for the project expected to be invited as part of its projects for 2015-2016, once the needed budget is allocated for the project.-TradeArabia News Service