passing data arrays to multiple columns using smarty php and mysql

dear experts,
After a long try, i got 90% success in what i'm trying to acheive.
What i want?
is to display the list of all the features from amenities column of my database in to 3 or 4 columns.
in regular sql query we get like
amenities1
amenities2
amenities3
amenities4
....
but i want in this manner
amenities 1          amenites2       amenities3
amenities 4          amenites5       amenities6
amenities 7          amenites8       amenities9

I want this in smarty way...
the code which i'm using is giving all the 11 columns instead dividing them to 3 columns.

My code is below
smarty code:

<?

      require("libs/Smarty.class.php");      
      $smarty = new smarty;
      $smarty->allow_php_templates= true;
      $smarty->compile_check = true;
      $smarty->caching = true;
      $smarty->cache_lifetime = 100;

      
      include("dbconnect.php");
// Amenities
      $i = 0;
      $amenities_query = "SELECT id,amenities FROM amenities";
      $amenitiesresult = mysql_query($amenities_query) or die(mysql_error());
      while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($amenitiesresult))
      {
      $amenitiesid = $row['id'];
      $amenitiesname = $row['amenities'];
      $columns = '4';
      
      $arr_amenitiesid[$i]            = $amenitiesid;
      $arr_amenitiesname[$i]            = $amenitiesname;
      
      $i++;
      }
// smarty codes for amenities...
      $smarty->assign("amenitiesid"         , $arr_amenitiesid);
      $smarty->assign("amenitiesname"         ,$arr_amenitiesname);

      mysql_close($db_connect);
      
      $smarty->display('list_property_optional_details.tpl');      


?>

list_property_optional_details.tpl code
<table>
    <tr>
    {assign var="col" value="0"}
    {section name=element loop=$amenitiesname}
        {if $col == $columns}
            </tr><tr>{assign var="col" value="0"}
        {/if}
        <td><input type="checkbox" name="C9" value="{$amenitiesname[element]}">{$amenitiesname[element]}</td>
        {assign var="col" value="'$col+1'"}
    {/section}
    {assign var="remainder" value="'$columns-$col"}
    {section name=emptyElement loop=$remainder}
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    {/section}
    </tr>
</table>

Could any of the smarty expert let me know how solve this problem...
In reply please explain with modified code..
A quick reply will be much appreciated