New record as 3 million people use Bahrain-Saudi Arabia causeway in August

King Fahad Causeway

By Habib Toumi

Manama: Close to three million people used the King Fahad Causeway linking Bahrain with Saudi Arabia in August, setting a new month record for the terrestrial link opened in 1986.

Figures show that 2,918,993 people used the 25-kilometer causeway, a daily average of more than 94,000 people.

The peak day was August 3 when 117,542 people drove over the causeway in both directions. The lowest figure was 57,600 on August 11, the first day of Eid Al Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslim families Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab and Islamic countries.

The previous transborder crossing record was set in July 2018 when 2,821,640 people travelled over the causeway.

Despite the record figure last month, vehicles needed an average of 23 minutes to cross the causeway during peak hours.

The causeway, Bahrain’s only terrestrial link with another country, is named after former king of Saudi Arabia Fahad bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud who ruled from June 1982 until August 2005.

Work on the causeway was launched in 1981 and it was opened to the public in November 1986. Cars, buses and trucks have been steadily using it to go in both directions, making it one of the most important links in the Arab world.

Several Saudi Arabia-based Saudi nationals and foreigners who work or study in Bahrain commute daily while a large number of Bahrain-based expatriates and Bahrainis use the causeway daily to go to their work or universities.

Strong family links between Gulf citizens are a significant factor in the exchange of visits over the causeway.

Movie theatres screening the latest movies and shopping complexes are considered among the top reasons for trips by Saudi families or Saudi Arabia-based foreigners to Manama.

Plans to build a second causeway, King Hamad Causeway, to be named after the king of Bahrain, are progressing.

The new causeway, to be funded by the private sector, would be used by passenger trains and freight trains besides vehicles.

The railway lines will be part of the wider 2,170-km Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) railway network.

The GCC, established in 1981, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Initial estimates for the King Hamad Causeway suggest that it will take about four years to complete. The business community in Bahrain has welcomed the project as a much-needed boost for the local and Gulf economies.

Businesspeople in Bahrain say that it would boost trade and commercial exchanges between the two kingdoms and other countries in the region and beyond.

“The railway movement of products has become an urgent necessity, particularly as the region witnesses fast developing rates of commercial activities, urbanism and demography,” they said.

“It will also greatly help with economic integration in several areas. The Bahraini market, much smaller than the Saudis, will benefit greatly while Saudi Arabia will benefit from the knowhow of Bahrainis who can commute every day between the two countries.”