Date:12/8/04
www.bahraintribune.com
The Ministry of Information has allocated a budget of BD80,000 to renovate two significant heritage buildings in Muharraq, Siyadi House and Shaikh Isa bin Ali House.
The budget for the renovation of the two houses were announced by the Undersecretary of the Information Ministry, Mahmood Yousif Al Mahmood, during a visit to both the sites. Present at the site visit were the Head of the Archaeology at the museum, Khalid Al Sendi, and other senior officials of the ministry. “For the past five years no renovation work has been conducted at the two buildings, which were deteriorating fast. The renovation work at Shaikh Isa bin Ali House, costing BD20,000 is ongoing and will be completed on August 26. The renovation at Siyadi House, costing BD60,000 will conclude next year,” he said. Al Mahmood said: “This time we have planned to decorate these houses giving them a touch of the past. Each time these houses are renovated we think that the job has been done but now we are thinking to improve it by filling in the empty rooms with appropriate furniture. “In Shaikh Isa bin Ali House old furniture from the museum will be fixed. This new decoration will give the visitors an exact idea of how these houses looked in the olden days. The Siyadi House needs some major renovation work which will take some 10 months to complete.” Al Mahmood said that they have planned to decorate this house with the equipment used for pearl diving. “We are planning to do this because the owner of the Siyadi House was one of the top pearl merchants of Bahrain. The visit to the old houses is part of the ministry’s plan to preserve the heritage buildings and this will be followed by several inspection visits to other sites in the coming weeks,” he added. |