Sale of plots on five islands of the $1 billion Durrat Al Bahrain resort city has already started and the first model residential buildings in the ambitious project are expected to come up in seven months.

Currently dredging and reclamation work is going on the massive project, being developed jointly by the Bahrain Government and the Dallah Al Baraka group of Saudi Arabia.

Contractors for infrastructure development will be selected soon, said a spokesman.

The project consists of seven islands comprising a public area and a private area. The public area will have two hotels, a film city, theme parks, shopping malls, a Marina village which could accommodate 320 boats, 14 dedicated buildings, an exhibition centre and an ice skating rink. An 18-hole golf course will be housed within the project.

The private area comprises residential chalets and houses. Every residential unit will face the beach. There will be 1,500 residential plots in total.

The spokesman said the first phase of the project will be completed in three years and people can start moving into the city from 2005 and by 2007 the whole project will be ready.

The contractor for the BD40 million ($106 million) dredging and reclamation work is the Netherlands-based Boskalis Westminster. The company is employing two dredgers at present to create the lagoons and islands. A total of 6 sq km of land will be reclaimed.

The total size of the project will be 20 sq km and it will be 30 per cent more than the total area of Manama city, said the spokesman. The aqua park in the project is now ready for launch. But the launch will wait till the beginning of the next summer season in April.