Work has started on the concrete foundations of the new BD30 million ($80 million)Hamad General Hospital in Muharraq, Bahrain.

The BD680,000 contract was awarded to the German Keller Grundbau GmbH Engineering Company which specialises in such concrete infrastructure projects, said Works and Housing Ministry assistant under-secretary for human resources and finance Mohammed Khalil Al Sayed.
The 312-bed hospital will feature three interconnected four-storey medical blocks. A fourth block is expected to be built later, giving a total of 500 beds.
“Work on the main blocks will hopefully start in April 2005 after the concrete foundations are completed,” said Al Sayed, who is also acting assistant under-secretary for construction and maintenance projects.
Almoayyed, Simplex enter JV
Manama: A BD1 million ($2.7 million) Bahraini-Indian joint venture company has been set up to undertake concrete piling work in the kingdom.
Almoayyed Contracting Group, a division of Y K Almoayyed & Sons, has joined hands with Simplex Concrete Piles (India).
Simplex Concrete Piles is a leading construction and piling company in India and has been pioneers in the field of ground engineering for the past 80 years and has over 450,000 m of piles this year.
Bahrain to have taller homes
Manama: Bahrain may soon be reaching for the sky to ease a shortage of land for housing. Planning rules may be changed to allow families to build taller homes, even though they will take up a wider area.
Average home sizes would increase in ground space by 30 per cent, under proposals being put forward by a national committee.
High-rise blocks of flats would increase in ground space by 50 per cent, says Sayed Majeed Al Sayed, chairman of the regulations technical committee, which comes under the newly-formed National Committee for Building and Construction.
Increasing the ground space would allow builders to add more storeys, making better use of the land, said Al Sayed, who is also Northern Municipal Council chairman.
Bahrain plans new flyovers
Manama: Plans to build a massive system of flyovers and underpasses near Mina Salman have been approved by Bahrain’s Cabinet.
The flyover, to be built from the Shaikh Isa bin Salman Highway to the Sitra Bridge at Mina Salman, is part of a BD570 million ($1.51 billion) project announced earlier.