Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered to double the budget allocated for the Shaikh Zayed Housing Programme.
The project will now be worth Dh1.28 billion.
Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Public Works, yesterday said that starting from February, over a period of 11 months, they will announce 8,000 names of Emiratis who will benefit from the housing project announced by Shaikh Mohammad last week.
Shaikh Mohammad had told the editors-in-chief of newspapers, who had accompanied him on his visit to the Eastern and Central regions of the UAE on Thursday, that he had instructed the Ministry of Financial and Industrial Affairs to start building 40,000 villas for Emiratis in various areas immediately.
The project, to be implemented at a cost of Dh15 billion, will be completed in three to four years.
"This is the biggest housing project in the history of the UAE as one batch which shows the wise leadership that works to provide decent living for the Emiratis," Shaikh Hamdan said during a press conference at Shaikh Zayed Housing Programme's office.
He said the Shaikh Zayed Housing Programme is the only federal programme in the UAE and so Shaikh Mohammad has given it the responsibility of completing the project.
Shaikh Hamdan said the project will include building individual houses and housing compounds, which will comprise not less than 700 houses, while the smallest compound will have 300 houses.
"The priority will be for people who do not have houses, which are about 12,700 [people], and those with ramshackle houses, which are 1,240 people," he said. Shaikh Hamdan said if these people get housing, most of the housing problems will be solved.
He said they have applications from all over the UAE. Shaikh Hamdan said the houses which will be built will be environment-friendly and will also adhere to the concepts of water and electricity consumption.
Information: Requests for homes
Shaikh Hamdan called on the people who had applied for houses to update their application information which will contribute in completing the transactions fast.
He said they may update through mail, website or through e-mails.
