Work on a busy section of the long- awaited Shaikh Salman Highway project is expected to be completed in August, according to Works Ministry officials.

The remaining work on the second phase of the highway is 50 per cent completed, they said.

This latest development comes as frustrated businesses in the area continue to complain about the impact it is having on them and their customers.

Most service roads, specifically in front of the commercial buildings, were completed except for the Adhari junction to Bahrain Pride Trading Centre, as drainage work is still in progress, said a ministry spokesman.

'Drainage work will be completed within one month,' he added.

'For the part in front of Baqer Furniture, it will be completed within a week.

'Work at Sehla and Khamis junctions will start in the second week of June.

'During the construction of the service roads, we have been co-ordinating with the shop owners to avoid any inconvenience.

'We provided diversions and access roads to the commercial buildings to ensure that there are no complaints from the public.

'The entire work on the project is scheduled to finish in August.'

Businesses on the highway said they were at breaking point due to the continuous roadwork for the past two months.

Work on the highway was due to finish in May 2009, but was then scheduled to be completed by October.

Our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) earlier reported that the major BD3.8 million face-lift on the busy highway had been delayed because of problems in importing building materials from Saudi Arabia.

Work on the project, which started in November 2007, included changing the asphalt layer, replacing traffic lights and upgrading the ground services network. The first phase of the project covered the area from Highway 35 to Khamis Mosque and cost BD2.3 million.

Businesses located on the highway said they had been badly affected following the ongoing work on the highway, leaving them with no customers.

Al Mahd Security financial controller Kamal Shrestha said they were the worst-hit as their customers and staff had nowhere to park due to road work.

'Our parking area in front of the office entrance was excavated two months ago and work is still going on,' said  Shrestha.

'We don't know how long it will continue. Our staff members have to park far from the office and come walking from there.

'We don't have many customers, as they can't park their cars anywhere, as the ongoing digging continues until the end of the road.

'All roads are blocked and customers are irritated because of it.

'Our business is completely affected. We hope they would finish work soon.

'We have to clean the office every day as it gets dusty because of the continuous digging.'

Bukannan Furnishing project sales manager Roy Thomas said they faced difficulty in the beginning.

'They started work on this road in 2009 and stopped it without giving us an explanation,' he added.

'Suddenly they started work again and closed the service road coming towards our showroom.

'Customers couldn't come because there was no access to the road linking to our showroom.

'However, it's comparatively better now because they have finished work on some parts of the road.'

Almoayyed Contracting Company scaffolding and cleaning division head Thomas K Joseph said their operations were low.

'Our operations section is badly affected as we are a service providing company, so we need to supply items to our customers,' said Joseph.

'Loading and unloading items is another headache, as we have no parking space. Customers are affected, businesses are affected and motorists are affected as well.

'They started work on the service lane, but it's almost three months and still they haven't finished.'

Sola Shoppers Shop manager Sreejesh Khanna said they lost thousands of dinars due to the situation.

'We lost more than BD20,000 as we had no customers,' said Khanna.

'The area near our shop was dug up and it's exactly in front of our shop entrance.

'Customers used to park near the entrance, but they can't even walk past it, as it's all dug up. We also have to clean our shop everyday, as it gets dusty.'-TradeArabia News Service