BD10,000 aid for Samajam building

THE Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam has received the third major donation from the Indian business community in the UAE, towards its new building fund.

Euro Emirates Group of Companies director and chairman of the Jai Hind TV channel company, Vijayan Thomas, has pledged BD10,000 towards the samajam's new headquarters.

Earlier, UAE-based business tycoons MA Yousiffali and Dr BR Shetty donated BD25,000 each for the building fund. The donation has given a major boost to the samajam's effort to build its own headquarters, said its president GK Nair.

"We have already spent BD180,000 and are still short of another BD70,000 to complete the first phase of the project," he told the GDN.

"The project is at the finishing stage. Landscaping and other works are also to be undertaken."

Seventy per cent of the work on the project in Segaiya, near the Kerala Catholic Association, has been completed, said building committee chairman PV Radhakrishna Pillai.

"We want the total support of the community to complete the project," he noted.

"Because of the rise in the prices of building materials including steel and cement, the cost has gone up by another 20 to 25 per cent. Our original estimate was BD200,000, but it would now go up to BD250,000."

Mr Pillai said the committee is expecting to have an official opening of the new premises by September this year.

The new headquarters is a dream project for the samajam, which was established in 1947, said general secretary Madhu Madhavan.