Opening hours at some of Bahrain's most popular malls have returned to normal for the first time in more than three months.

Shopping venues yesterday confirmed they had been amended, following the lifting of the curfew between the Seef flyover and Bahrain Financial Harbour.

Bahrain City Centre had been operating from 10am to 10pm daily bar Friday and Saturday, when it closed at 11pm, to ensure employees were able to leave the area before the curfew kicked in at midnight.

However, stores at the mall will now be open from 10am to 10pm from Saturday to Tuesday and until midnight on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

It is almost identical to the calendar the mall followed prior to the anti-government protests at the nearby Pearl roundabout in February.

Restaurants and the Bahrain Cineco complex at Bahrain City Centre had also been affected by the curfew, but in an statement sent to our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) officials confirmed food outlets would once again open until midnight, while the cinema's final showing would now begin at 11.30pm.

Carrefour supermarket will now open daily from 8.30am until midnight.

A Seef Mall spokesman said it too had returned to normal operating hours. Having been operating between 10am and 10pm daily for the last few weeks, it will now remain open until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, as it did prior to the protests.

The Cineco facilities will follow the same times as those at the Bahrain City Centre.

A Dana Mall spokesman, which has been one of the worst affected by the unrest, said officials would publish its new opening hours and a programme of events today and were 'looking forward to getting back to normal'.

Malls in the vicinity of the Pearl roundabout were first closed down when thousands of anti-government demonstrators took over the landmark in mid-February.

As tensions frayed for several weeks, the number of people visiting the usually busy venues plummeted, until the curfew was imposed on March 16.

It forced malls to restrict their opening hours.-TradeArabia News Service