Authorities are expecting a five-fold increase in the number of vehicles on Bahrain's roads over the next two decades.

There were around 460,000 cars, trucks, bikes and other vehicles on the road by the end of last year, Works Ministry roads and traffic adviser Abdul Nabi Al Sabah revealed yesterday.

However, he predicted that the figure would rocket to 2.5 million by 2030 - meaning there would be one vehicle for every person in the country.

'The country now has around 460,000 vehicles of all kinds, which roughly translates to one vehicle for every two persons,' he said.

'In the next 20 years, we expect there will be as many people as there are vehicles.

'At the present growth rate, it is estimated Bahrain's population will be around 2.5 million in 2030 and one can imagine what the vehicle population would do on the roads if there was no development of public transport.'

Al Sabah made his comments during the Infrastructure Middle East Conference on Traffic and Transportation, which opened on Monday at the Gulf Hotel's Gulf International Convention Centre.

He said even if there was still one person for every two vehicles by 2030, it would translate to more than one million vehicles and that was still too many.

'We are, therefore, working on a public transport system that will encourage people to not use their vehicles to get from one point to another,' he explained.

Our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) reported yesterday that a detailed study had begun on a transport master plan, which should be completed within two years.

According to the plan, the first phase of the project - a railway line linking Bahrain Mall with Bahrain International Airport and another linking the same mall with Juffair - could be finished by mid-2014.

Feasibility studies are also being conducted on an underground railway network, as part of a nationwide transport project consisting of Light Rail Transport (LRT), Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), a tramway and monorail.

Al Sabah said the new public transport network was vital, with figures showing that the number of vehicles is growing at almost twice the rate of the population.

'It is estimated the population will grow by between three and four per cent and the vehicle population by between six and seven,' he said. Private vehicles now account for 93 per cent of all vehicles.

'This is leading to an increase in pollution, more carbon monoxide emissions and a generally unhealthy situation,' he added.

The conference, which ends today, is organised by the Bahrain Society of Engineers under the patronage of Works Minister Essam Khalaf and is co-sponsored by the German Society for Infrastructure Solution Transfer.-TradeArabia News Service