The proposed new visitors' centre at the Giants Causeway is to receive a £9.25m grant from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB).

The funding represents half the cost of the project, the BBC reports.

The Heritage Lottery Fund had already pledged £3m, while the National Trust is to invest £4m.

The Trust is also seeking to raise the remaining £2m from public donations.

The centre, which is scheduled for completion in 2012, was designed by Dublin architects Heneghan Peng, and will be hidden from the coastal landscape by a grass roof.

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The facility will have environmental features such as water-permeable paving, natural lighting and rainwater harvesting.

SDLP Enterprise and Tourism spokesperson Alasdair McDonnell has welcomed the start of work on the new £18.5 million visitor centre and facilities.

"It is frankly embarrassing that our primary tourist attraction has languished for ten years since the previous centre burned down.

"The embarrassment got a lot worse when it looked as if effective control of our only World Heritage Site might be privatised.

"It sent out a very poor signal that the then Environment Minister Arlene Foster said she was 'minded' to approve a for-profit approach to this great public asset," he said.

"The current partnership approach between the National Trust and public authorities is the only way to do justice to the Giant's Causeway and ensure maximum public benefit combined with maximum environmental protection."

(NS/BMcC)