DOHA: A Bahraini Arabic daily attributed the delay in executing the causeway linking Qatar to Bahrain to differences over bearing the cost of the project.
Al Wasat daily quoted a source as saying Qatar preferred sharing of the cost by all GCC countries as part of the unified Gulf project.
Other sources, the newspaper said, attributed the delay in executing the project to the recent political unrest in Bahrain in addition to Qatar fearing the negative impact of the link upon tourists.
The 40-km causeway project is also facing engineering obstacles besides the hike in the cost of raw materials by 30 to 40 percent taking the final cost to $5bn.
A source told the Bahraini local daily that there were many reasons behind the delay in the project due to the desire of the two neighbouring countries to develop the design and build two bridges with different specifications instead of one.
He said the designs will be ready by the end of this summer.
© The Peninsula 2011
