The world's longest marine causeway, a $3 billion project which will link Bahrain and Qatar, will come up in the Gulf region by 2013. The over-40 km twin carriageway, running across 22km of viaducts over the sea and 18km of embankments, will reduce travel time by car between the Gulf countries by about four hours. Economic Development Board Chief Executive Sheikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa said the construction of the “Friendship Causeway” has already started. “The Friendship Causeway will strengthen Bahrain's position as the best place in the Middle East for companies to locate in order to develop their businesses across the GCC economies,” he said. “As a location for international companies, Bahrain is one of the most mature and well-established free markets in this rapidly growing economic region.” “Bahrain has a strong history of working closely with its neighbors and it is already linked by King Fahd Causeway to Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The completion of this second causeway will be a welcome further addition to Bahrain's impressive air, sea and road links, and will provide many new opportunities for companies based in Bahrain to further develop their business, not only in Qatar but right across the GCC.” Travel time from Qatar to Bahrain by car is expected to be reduced from four and a half hours to around 30 minutes. The causeway will also provide a connection for future high-speed freight and passenger rail lines in the neighboring countries. There are also plans to extend the route to link Istanbul, Turkey to Muscat, Oman.
