The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning today signed 7 agreements to assign the designing of layouts and future cities distributed over various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. These agreements come in implementation of urban regional strategies and to pursue balanced urban development in all governorates.
The agreements were signed on behalf of the Ministry by Eng. Ibrahim Hammoud Al Waeli, Director of the Urban Strategy Office with officials of companies in the field of urban planning and building future cities.
Agreements were signed with consulting companies for the projects of “Future City of Salalah”, “Bawshar City” and “Future City of Sohar”. A number of other projects were also awarded to companies, such as the layout of Greater Nizwa, layout of Haima City, developing downtown of Ibri city and Khor Grama layout at Sur City.
Future cities provide an integrated model for various uses, with multiple features, represented in being easy to access, flexible, healthy, smart, developed, highly efficient, safe and sustainable. The total area of such cities exceeds 20 million square meters, and they all accommodate more than 150,000 people and about 40,000 housing units, which is a new model for modern life that keeps pace with changes and meets the needs of the population.
Al Waeli said that the main goal of future cities is to provide services before distributing or investing in land plots. He pointed out that as many as 40,000 housing units are targeted by these agreements, benefiting more than 150,000 people in different areas in the Sultanate of Oman. Ownership of these units will be available for Omanis and non-Omanis.
Moreover, since the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has approved the allocation of 51 land plots through the usufruct system for various uses in different governorates.
The ministry has also inked contracts worth RO 10.5 million during the Real Estate Development Conference.
