AROUND BD1.5 billion has been spent in the last 10 years to develop Bahrain’s roads amidst increasing traffic congestion.
Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Kamal Ahmed said the upcoming Bahrain Metro Network, alongside public transportation, will help the government to cut down this expense.
He also said that an integrated mobility plan was being drawn up to ensure the use of right modes of transportation and to tackle rising number of vehicles on Bahrain’s roads.
Latest statistics show that registered vehicles on Bahrain’s roads reached 719,418 in December, a 36 per cent increase in the last five years.
“We are late as a country to have a metro and today the main mode of transportation is cars,” said Mr Ahmed.
“Nobody knows that we have spent BD1.5bn during the last 10 years on highways and roads as the traffic congestion is more than before, but even if we spend another BD1.5bn it will not be solved.
“Currently, we do not have an integrated mobility plan or a transportation plan, but we are working together now to make sure we have the right mode of transportation.
“The technology is distracting the transportation sector and nobody can detect what will happen in two years, but definitely we need to rely on bringing more people into metro and buses.”
He said Bahrain’s first metro project, costing between $1bn and $2bn, will soon undergo a major phase with the appointment of a transaction consultant in September.
Network
The GDN previously reported that the project will cover a total area of 109km, with electric driverless trains capable of carrying 43,000 passengers per hour from more than 20 stations spread across the country.
It is expected to be operational by 2023.
“In 2014 the ministry initiated the metro project and we appointed Spanish consulting company IDOM Consultant Engineering, which has finished a comprehensive study,” explained Mr Ahmed.
“They have identified the need and what the network should be like, along with the routes of the network, the phase-wise development and the cost.
“This has been submitted to the ministerial segment and we have to get their approval to move to the next phase, which is to appoint a construction adviser, which is a consortium of legal, technical and financial entities.
“We will receive the bids by June and by September a transaction adviser will be appointed.
“They will do the pre-qualification for the developer and also review the financial business case and develop the invite for developers.
“Once this is completed and we get the approval from the government, we will issue the invite for the developer – it is a complicated project and is not easy.”
The project will be built in four phases over four years and the first phase will include the construction of two lines of the metro network, with a total length of 29km of suspended bridges interspersed with 20 stop stations serving most residential and commercial areas.
“We have identified the corridors across a 30km stretch of our roads, identified space for the stations and the land we need to acquire from different governorate entities and some private land owners whom we are talking with,” added the minister.
“Once the transaction adviser is appointed, which is an important phase in the project, within 12 to 18 months we will begin the development of the project.
“It will be faster than all the GCC, as we initiated it in April 2016 and operational (launch will be) by December 2019.”
Mr Ahmed was speaking at the sixth edition of C5 Accelerate’s Policy Hack Series called Fire Side Chat with its executive director Hadyah Fathalla. Technology investment firm C5 Accelerate has offices in London, Washington DC and Bahrain, with partners such as Tamkeen, Amazon Web Services, Economic Development Board, and SAP NS2.
Causeway
The nationwide monorail network is part of Bahrain’s section of a pan-Gulf railway.
The GCC Railway, which is on track to be operational by the end of 2023, will connect a cargo station in the Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Hidd and a passenger terminal in Salmabad to a train station in Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain’s section of the railway project, from the station in Hidd until the station in Saudi, will extend 75km, including the upcoming 25km King Hamad Causeway. The causeway, set to begin next year, will cost $4bn and includes four lanes for vehicles and two lanes for the railway.
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