The Mohammed bin Rashid Housing Establishment (MRHE) has begun construction work on the Dh3 billion ($816.7 million) housing project in the Al Barsha area of Dubai.

The work involves the first phase of the 252 housing-unit-project being executed jointly with the Arab Tech Construction Company and Parsons and Aref Bin Touq, a construction consultancy firm.

The beginning of the project marks the take-off in the construction of 2,300 housing unit in various areas across Dubai.

The construction of 325 housing units is expected to commence soon in the Oud Al Mutena area, while the construction of another 504 housing units will also take-off soon in the Al Warqa area.

Sami Gargash, acting managing director of MBRHE, said the project implementation is in line with the directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice president, prime minister and Dubai ruler, who is highly committed to providing good living conditions for UAE nationals.

He said the execution of the multi-billion dirham project will be in two phases. “Phase I consists of 110 housing units which will take 21 months to complete, while phase II, which consists of 142 housing units will be completed within 24 months.”

He said the cost of the current project is about Dh328 billion. It includes housing units in nine different designs and each design comprises a ground floor and two storeys.

'Each floor is made up of either three, four or five bedrooms, a sitting room, dining room, a kitchen, bathrooms, a special room for maid servants and a garage with a capacity to accommodate two cars,' he added.

He pointed out that although the designs look similar to those of the current projects, the bedrooms sitting rooms and kitchen are larger, having taken into consideration the observations made by UAE nationals on the old designs.

“In designing the new villas, we took into serious consideration the taste of all the various categories of the beneficiaries, in such a way that every beneficiary would be given the freedom to choose the size and facial design of his house among the lots of designs, which include local, Islamic and Andalusian designs.”

He further explained that the houses have all the elements of beauty, health and leisure and the designs take into consideration the requirements of people with special needs, as they have wide doors and sloppy floors to facilitate the smooth entry and exit of wheel chairs being used by people with special needs.