Massoud for poor’s access to affordable housing

KABUL (Pajhwok): President’s special envoy for reforms and good governance Ahmad Zia Massoud on Wednesday said low paid government servants and poor people should have access to affordable housing in Kabul City.

Speaking at the Ministry of Urban Development, Massoud said the New Kabul City residential scheme faced bureaucratic hurdles like parallel administrations, which needed to be removed.

“We should leave behind an organised city for our coming generations,” said Massoud, who dubbed housing projects developed by the Urban Development Ministry as expensive for teachers, low-income officials and the poor.

He also questioned the amount of installments for buying homes in a joint housing project by the Urban Development Ministry and Mimar-i-Shahr Construction Company in Qasaba area of Kabul City.

He said it was not affordable for a teacher to pay $55,000 in installments for two years to buy an apartment.

He added the capital’s population was growing day by day and work-pace on the New Kabul City project needed to be accelerated.

Urban Development Minister Dr. Hassan Abdullahi said the government had been working on the New Kabul City project over the past eight years, but hurdles to the scheme remained.

He added work on 25,860 apartments was launched three years ago in different parts of Kabul City and 554 apartments had already been occupied.

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