A proposal to bulldoze a popular flea market in Isa Town in Bahrain is being studied by authorities, who plan to reconstruct the traditional market in the area to make it more appealing to tourists.

New designs for the Isa Town Traditional Market is being reviewed by the Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry, which wants to turn the suq into a tourist destination similar to the ones in Manama and Muharraq.

It submitted its plans to the Southern Municipal Council, which proposed scrapping the area allocated for the weekend flea market and utilise it for other purposes.

Councillors also suggested having two days allocated for needy families selling homemade products.

However, Southern Municipality director-general Assem Abdullatif said the council's suggestions would be put on hold until the designs are approved.

"Change is imminent and the market will have new entrances and exits along with relocation of some facilities, including the flea market," he told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"However, we need time to study what direction will be taken and a special committee has been formed by Minister Essam Khalaf, to address the chaotic situation there.

"The current flea market concept could be scrapped, or become smaller, or it may remain as it is or moved elsewhere within the main market - we still don't know.

"If the flea market stays then we will have to work with the Health Ministry and the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to ensure organisation because we don't know if the food sold there is in good condition or rotten, and we even have to check on the way animals are exhibited there."

He said the municipality was not against helping people, known as "Productive Bahraini Families", who display their goods at the market, but such plans needed time for implementation.

"Whenever we draw up the master plan for the market we will work to get space for those families, whether we charge them BD2 as suggested by the council or give it to them for free," he said.

"However, the council has to realise that we will need more security and a better management of the market - we can't do it with the limited number of inspectors and organisers we have at the moment."

The council also wants authorities to set up indication signs for the market across the country and near the King Fahad Causeway, and obliging the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) to send tourist buses to the area.

"These are good ideas and we accept them because it will help put us on the tourist map in similar fashion to the Manama and Muharraq suqs," said Abdullatif.

"We will set-up the signs in co-ordination with the Central Informatics Organisation, and we will ask the BACA for buses to come to the market."

The Isa Town traditional market reopened in June last year following a massive blaze that ripped through it. The GDN earlier reported that the market suffered extensive damage in March when 46 firemen battled for three hours to put out a fire that affected hundreds of shop owners. It followed an earlier blaze in July 2012 that similarly wreaked havoc at the suq.-TradeArabia News Service