The Bahrain Ministry of Housing has announced plans to replace dilapidated homes in the old residential neighbourhoods of capital Manama with new buildings.

Addressing the MPs in the parliament on Tuesday, Housing Minister Bassem Al Hamer said the capital was one of the most difficult areas to introduce new housing projects.

Therefore the only option was to replace dilapidated homes with new builds, he said.

"We have prepared technical plans for urbanisation in old Manama neighbourhoods and as suggested we are studying purchasing some private lands to have government housing projects on despite their unavailability," said Al Hamer.

"Everyone knows that there are empty lands in Manama, which are valuable for possible houses," the minister stated.

"Unfortunately some ministers have decided that they were good car parking lots and turned it into that rather than have houses for new generations," he added.-TradeArabia News Service