Heavy traffic both ways on Bahrain connection

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 34

Heavy traffic both ways on Bahrain connection

Five bridges and seven embankments now connect the Arabian Gulf State of Bahrain with Saudi Arabia, and things are starting to change on both ends of the causeway. MARIAM ALKHALIFA, of Reuters, reports from Bahrain:

A flood of visitors from the Arabian Peninsula into the offshore nation of Bahrain across a new $2.1 billion causeway is ushering in an era of change.' Visiting families in large American cars bulging with veiled women, children, and luggage are a common sight in the cosmopolitan island State of 420,000 people. Traffic jams are building up and the traditional souks — or markets — bustle with more shoppers. Hotels report business booming again after a Gulf-wide recession in the last three years. The 25km link across the shallow waters of the Gulf of Salwa to Saudi Arabia wds financed by the Saudis and opened lAst November by their monarch, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz. Overnight, the King Fahd Causeway, as it is officially named, ended Bahrain’s geographical isolation from other member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Since then, more than 1.3 million people have travelled across in both directions, mainly to shop or visit relatives and friends.

Despite sometimes lengthy customs and immigration formalities, an average of 3000 private cars use the four-lane causeway each day, bringing in almost a million dollars a month in tolls.

The traffic is about equal in botll directions. Most BallWnis

are eager to buy cheaper Saudi goods; visitors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. take in the island’s, comparatively relaxed lifestyle. Carloads of young men from neighbouring Arab States come to Bahrain, where residents mix freely and alcohol is available. By contrast, Saudi Arabia bans alcohol and women seldom appear in public Without a male relative as escort.

Officials are hoping the road link to the Arabian mainland will help promote Bahrain as a regional tourist centre. Most hoteliers now report up to 100 per cent occupancy on Thursdays and Fridays — the Muslim weekend — and say bookings on other days have risen by up to 15 per cent

“This boost will enable the island’s hotel industry to survive,” says one small hotelier who considered closing last year when occupancy rates dipped below 40 per cent. Consumers are also benefiting.

“Local traders have started to reduce prices of basic commodities and consumer items by 20 to 30 per cent to compete with the cheaper Saudi market” says Jassim al-Shatti, Secretary-General of Bahrain’s Chamber of Commerce. Bahraini traders say they cannot compete with Saudiimported goods because dealers in the Kingdom negotiate better rates from overseas agents by buying in bulk. Both countries rely imports for items ranging nK

soap, rice, and meat to clothes, cars and electronics. Shatti says that Bahraini traders might be able to lower their prices by importing goods jointly with Saudi counterparts. A predicted property boom has not yet happened, though. Most real estate agents say prospects remain bleak as long as the

recession brought on by lower oil prices lasts. “Some landlords have raised their fees by 50 to 60 per cent, but they are just dreaming,” says one agent The Deputy Chairman of the King Fahd Causeway Authority, Sheikh Isa Bin Abdulla AlJChalifa, says that more cash is Rowing into Saudi Arabia than

into Bahrain, at present -< “The only way Bahrain can benefit from the causeway on a large scale is if Bahrainis begin to take jobs there and commute to work,” he adds. “This is feasible if immigration formalities, are eased and people can cross, using only identity card 77