MANAMA: The Bahrain municipality officials said they plan to ease a six-year ban on construction in old neighborhoods of Muharraq area. The Muharraq Municipal Council has agreed to consider home and building permits on a case by case basis. New criteria will now be drawn up by the Muharraq Municipality for applicants before requests are submitted to the council for approval. Councilors last month voted to have the ban partially lifted within specific residential blocks in view of necessary expansion for a growing population. However, the Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry and other government organizations objected to the plan, saying it would harm the identity of old neighborhoods. A decision to relax the ban follows demands for action by businessmen and residents. Council chairman Abdulnasser Al Mahmeed agreed with government concerns about the ban being lifted in specific blocks, saying that old homes and buildings were scattered across the Muharraq Governorate's neighborhoods and not in one particular place. "We can't lift the ban on a whole block because it means that homes and buildings that we want protected could be demolished for new ones," he said.
