Housing committee reviews Muscat investment projects

MUSCAT: A review of investment projects in the housing sector was among the issues on the agenda of an urban planning committee which met yesterday.

The Technical Committee, incharge of provisional mechanism for urban planning, formed by the Decision No. 58/2014 held its first meeting at the Ministry of Housing yesterday under the chair of Eng. Saif bin Amer Al Shaqsi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Housing.

He said that the Committee approved 65 applications related to changing the use and heights in Governorate of Muscat and reviewed some investment projects.

He added in a statement that during the period from Septem- ber 2014 to the end of 2016, the Committee held 29 meetings during which it approved 200 layouts at the residential, industrial, commercial and residential uses.

Further, the Committee approved 1,242 planning pockets and mini plans that provided 131,000 land plots for the different uses. The accumulated land plots fit to set up an integrated city that can accommodate as many as 650,000 people.

He pointed out such layouts represent burden for the concerned authorities in terms of providing roads, electricity and water services. He added that the Committee also reviewed 1,204 applications by citizens for changing the use and heights in the various governorates.