Bahrain Transportation and Telecommunications
Control tower personnel at Bahrain International Airport,
on Al Muharraq, Bahrain
Courtesy Embassy of Bahrain, Washington
Causeway from Bahrain to Al Khubar, Saudi Arabia
Courtesy Embassy of Bahrain, Washington
Bahrain's small size and level terrain made the
development
of its excellent road system easy. In 1993 the country had
more
than 200 kilometers of paved roads linking all populated
areas of
the island. Two paved roads and several gravel roads run
through
the sparsely inhabited southern half. A
twenty-five-kilometer
causeway, completed in 1986, allows traffic to cross to
Saudi
Arabia. A second causeway links the capital with the
international airport on the island of Al Muharraq. With
its
3,660-meter runway, Bahrain International Airport can
handle the
largest airplanes in use. In 1993 it was the eastern
terminus for
British Airways nonstop service from London using the
Concorde.
Gulf Air, jointly owned by Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and
Oman,
provides regularly scheduled service to more than twenty
international destinations.
Bahrain's main port is Mina Salman on the tip of the
island
of Bahrain. Opened in 1962 and expanded several times
thereafter,
Mina Salman has sixteen berths and can handle vessels with
a
draught of up to nine meters. Crude and refined petroleum
passes
through the port of Sitrah, about ten kilometers southeast
of
Manama. A dry dock on the southern end of the island of Al
Muharraq handles repairs of ships of up to 500,000 tons.
The telecommunications system is modern and has good
domestic
service and excellent international connections. In 1992
the
country had some 98,000 telephones, or eighteen per 100
inhabitants, one of the highest per capita figures in the
Middle
East. Radio-relay and submarine cables link Bahrain with
all its
neighbors. Three satellite ground stations--one operating
with
International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation's
(Intelsat) Atlantic Ocean satellite, one operating with
Intelsat's Indian Ocean satellite, and one operating as
part of
the Arab Satellite Communication Organization (Arabsat)
system--
provide excellent international telephone and data links
and live
television broadcasts. Two AM and three FM radio stations
provide
broadcast services in Arabic and English. A shortwave AM
station
beams programs in Arabic throughout the Middle East.
Data as of January 1993
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