A new £18m visitor centre is set to be built at the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Site after the scheme was approved by the Northern Ireland Executive's environment minister, Sammy Wilson.

Plans for the new centre, which was designed by Dublin-based architects, heneghan.peng, were submitted by the National Trust in June last year to replace a previous facility destroyed by fire eight years ago.

Moyle District Council is also involved in the scheme, which has received £9.25m from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board while also gaining stage one approval from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £3m grant.

Work is expected to get underway on the new visitor centre in later this year, and it is hoped that it will be ready to open in 2011.

Wilson said: "I have weighed up all options including the merits of referring this application to the Planning Appeals Committee, either on its own or conjoined with a hearing into the previous unsuccessful application from a private developer.

"Neither of these options would be of any public benefit and would introduce further delay into the provision of the facility and lengthen the already unacceptably long period during which our top tourist attraction has been without a visitor centre.

"Having considered all matters relevant to this case, I have authorised a Notice of Opinion to approve the National Trust application."

National Trust director for Northern Ireland, Hilary McGrady, said: "This approval means that the Giant's Causeway will continue to be cared for by future generations. Equally, today is about welcoming the potential to create new jobs within our economy, delivering employment for local communities, and enhancing tourism in Northern Ireland."

In January 2008, plans for a privately-funded visitor centre were rejected by former environment minister, Arlene Foster.