Piling work on the Tala Island projects – within the BD378 million ($1 billion)  Amwaj Islands being developed off Muharraq in Bahrain – started last month with the award of a BD650,000 piling contract, to Keller Grundbau.

Foundation work for the first phase will take about seven weeks and will include 48 luxury marina apartments, said Tala Island Development Company general manager Kareem Shamma.
Phase one and two of Tala will finish by December next year and these will make up 50 per cent of the entire Tala project.
The piling work will be completed in nine months, said Keller branch manager Imtiaz Ahmed Syed.
Davenport Campbell is the architectural consultant for the apartment blocks and villas, while Hyder Consulting is the structural consultant. Gemac is the mechanical and electrical consultant for the project and Cost Partnership is the quantity surveyor.
Meanwhile, the zoning plans for the Amwaj Islands project – which will include multi-storey buildings, hotels and commercial complexes – have also been completed.
The project will involve areas for multi-storey investment towers and five to 20-storey buildings. It will also include housing areas that accommodate three-storey homes on the island’s shores.
Areas have also been allocated for hotels, commercial complexes, restaurants, coffee shops and other tourist attractions.
Tala covers an area of 110,000 sq m, and will include 88 villas on the beachfront, with sizes ranging from 190 sq m to 520 sq m. The two and three bedroom luxury apartments will range from 280 to 600 sq m in area.
Ossis, the owning company of Amwaj Islands, will complete all infrastructure works for Tala Island by early next year. These will include roads, sewerage, water and electricity supply, drainage network, telecommunications and streetlighting.