(Turkmenistan.ru) - 13 construction companies are getting ready to commission 36 new residential buildings, the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru reports. According to the Ashgabat municipality, about 1000 families will get new apartments by October 27, the day of Independence. Nearly 20 ministries and departments and the city administration are the customers of the houses. A series of house-warming pre-holiday festivities have already started. Recently, the Food Industry Association has got a 12-storey luxury apartment building built by the Turkish construction company, reports Trend.
The housing boom is a result of the program of providing the Ashgabat citizens with housing meeting accepted world standards and affordable to people that was initiated by Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov. In 1997-2004, 150 houses, schools, nurseries, trade centers, markets were built in the city whereas the same number of similar projects is under construction or has been built in the last two years. In addition, the head of state set a task for each ministry to build two new apartment buildings for their officers annually.
The peculiarity of this stage of the construction program is that customers have become more independent in choosing the contractors and designs of buildings and that all works are financed at the expense of future owners of the buildings, mutual payments or other profits. The State budget covers only social and housing needs of budgetary organizations. It is due to the fact that industrial, transport and agricultural departments of the country have accumulated enough capacity and are able to realize their own social programs by themselves. Employees of these organizations purchase apartments at preferential terms and at significant discounts. To ensure quick returns on the construction costs, the ministries and departments are entitled to sell part of the apartments at their full price.
It is anticipated that new houses with luxury apartments and improved lay-out as well as the adjacent complex of service facilities will eventually become the most common housing for the citizens of the country. The National program "Strategy of economic, political and cultural development of Turkmenistan till 2020" provides that by this time the share of private housing fund would increase up to 96.5% and per capita living area would reach 35 sq m.