Work on a BD1 billion ($2.65 billion) renovation project at Manama Central Market in Bahrain is set to be delayed by up to 18 months, officials said.

Councillors have put on hold plans to redevelop the area until a comprehensive study on how to modernise one of Bahrain’s most important areas is completed.

It is not expected to be ready until early 2014.

Initial agreement has already been reached between Manama Municipality and Municipal and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry to appoint a consultancy firm to oversee the redevelopment of the market.

The contract, due to be signed this month, had been postponed to allow municipal officials to come up with a detailed agreement and other paperwork.

Tashgeel for Commercial Buildings Management has been awarded the contract to carry out the study it has been working on unofficially for the last few months. It will be responsible for determining the best way to handle investment, market the project, come up with criteria for investors, help select the best bidders and supervise designs.

The plan was first announced in January 2008, but sidelined due to the global financial crisis and problems reaching agreement on the best way forward.

Initial designs for the project, dubbed as a “City within a city”, include a new BD120 million central market, which could be named Capital Trade Centre.

The development was set to include business, residential, shopping and leisure spaces. Four 28-storey office and shopping towers, a new central market, car parking facilities, a five-star hotel, heritage village and park were also part of the plans.

“We have to wait for Tashgeel to complete its tasks on defining directions on how the massive redevelopment should be approached before a contract is awarded and work on the project begins,” said municipality director general Yousif Al Ghatam.

“This means we can’t have major renovations at the market, if merchants are to be moved within the upcoming two or three years to pave way for re-development work.

“The municipality has carried renovations and is willing to do more in the market, but not those that are costly like remodelling because it would squander public money.”

Al Ghatam rejected complaints from traders that the market was no longer profitable due to the negligence of officials.

“The closure of nearby roads, especially the former GCC (Pearl) roundabout, has nothing to do with us and from what I have seen traffic in the area is smooth now, so merchants shouldn’t make it an excuse for drop in business,” he said.

However, Manama Municipal Council vice-chairman Mohammed Mansoor said traders had been left to suffer because the municipality didn’t have a thorough plan on how to redevelop the market.

“Yes, there was a vision three years ago, but today it is just ideas on how to redevelop the marketplace,” he said.

“The location has lost value due to the protests and road closures and saying that it was not affected is untrue. The municipality can still rescue the market with the announcement of the massive redevelopment project and finding potential investors, while doing major renovations until real work begins and this may take up to five years,” he added.

Mansoor said morale among traders had reached an all-time low given the uncertain fate of the project.

“We want a clear direction and this can only come from an urgent study, which we hope Tashgeel would provide us with, until the thorough study is completely ready within the 18-month timeframe it has agreed to fulfil,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service