Saudi Arabian authorities have announced the launch of a model housing project for expat workers in the Madinah region that will accommodate 3,000 people.

According to a report by the Saudi Gazette, the housing project, which was constructed on a 39,000sqm area, is the first among a number of typical projects in the region, and has been furnished with various environmental, health, and operational facilities and services.

The report added that Madinah is witnessing the completion of a number of typical projects for labour housing in the Al Oyoun and Al Hijrah neighbourhoods.

The Mayoralty has also awarded a project on an area of more than 250,000sqm on the Hijrah Expressway, bringing the total capacity of labour housing to about 15,000 workers, while another typical housing project for 5,000 workers has been implemented under the supervision of the Royal Commission in Yanbu, it added.

Prince Faisal Bin Salman, the Emir of the Madinah region, said the new labour housing project comes as a model for quick solutions approved by the main committee in the region, to study the housing conditions of expatriate workers and rectify the violations with regard to their housing.

The project is timely as the committee had found last year that more than 17,000 workers were living in overcrowded housing facilities within the Madinah neighbourhoods, he stated.

The committee had subsequently adopted a mechanism to deal with it, he concluded.