Manama: Bahrain is keen on moving ahead with the construction of a long-planned causeway linking Bahrain and Qatar, a Bahraini newspaper has reported.
"The causeway is highly significant and the peoples of Bahrain and Qatar have pinned great hopes on it," Bahraini sources told Al Ayam daily. "The terrestrial link will bring in great economic and development benefits and will consolidate popular and historic ties between the two countries," the unnamed sources said.
The call for moving ahead with the massive construction work was made amid reports that it had been put on hold. The construction of the 40km causeway, the longest fixed link in the world, was first announced in September 2001 six months after Manama and Doha accepted a verdict from the International Court of Justice settling their decade-long border dispute. The project was approved for construction in February 2005 and in June 2006, Manama and Doha signed an agreement to form a company that would raise the necessary capital and initiate construction.
However, work on the project was delayed and the scope was changed to include a railway as part of the train network between the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Last year, Manama and Doha said that work would start in early 2010 and be completed by 2015. No official statement was issued by either country on the status.
