Thaindian News

Dubai, March 2 (IANS) A new labour accommodation facility, with the capacity of housing around 50,000 labourers, is soon going to come up in the Qatari capital of Doha. A large number of the 5.5 million expatriate Indians in the Gulf work as contract labourers in the booming construction industry of the region. There are around 300,000 Indians, a large number of whom are labourers, in Qatar.

Barwa Real Estate Company, a leading real estate developer of the region, has joined hands with four Qatari firms to build a new integrated city, which will be built on nearly 1.88 million square metres of land in the suburbs of Doha, according to local media reports.

“Labourers’ rights and improving their living and health standards is our main objective behind the project,” Barwa Real Estate Company chairman Ghanim bin Saad Al Saad said at a function to launch the project.

According to the Gulf Times, the built-up area of the 4 billion-Qatari riyal ($1.1 billion) project will cover 754,000 square metres, with 250,000 square metres being devoted to landscaping and recreational facilities.

The project’s major amenities, including labourers’ housing, will begin next month. Details of the monthly rent have not been worked out but the project promoters said the rent would be affordable to the targeted segment.

The project will comprise 64 buildings, each of four floors. Each floor will have 130 rooms and the city will have the capacity to accommodate 49,920 people.

“This is our way of recognising labourers who are an essential part in building this country,” Barwa executive president Ibrahim Yousef Fakhroo was quoted as saying.

He said that each room would accommodate six people, which meant one person would have 4.25 square metres of living space.

“This is well above the accepted international standards. In Singapore a similar project provides between 3-3.5 square metres,” he said.

The project, which will be implemented in two phases, will have mosques, playgrounds, a fitness centre, cinemas, malls, a motel, a medical centre, a petrol station, used car showrooms, an auction place, industrial plots and a warehouse among other amenities.

The accommodation will be leased out to companies.

Construction of this mega project starts this month and is expected to be completed by mid-2010.