The first batch of tenants who were awarded the low-rent housing units by the Barwa Real Estate company moved into their apartments in Mesaimeer yesterday. Barwa staff members and a team of volunteers were available to control the traffic and assist the tenants as they arrived since morning with trucks full of furniture and household goods. “ I have taken a day off from my office to complete the shifting. We will be moving into our new house today,” said Farooq Alqubbaj, a Romanian who works with a construction company in Doha. The Peninsula met him outside his apartment complex, along with his wife and three children. “We were staying in a shared accommodation with just two rooms paying a monthly rent of QR4,000. The Barwa project has come as a boon to me and my family,” said Alqubbaj, who holds a Romanian passport, but Jordanian by origin. An official in charge of the proceedings at the site said about 70 percent of the nearly 300 tenants, who received their keys on Sunday and Monday shifted to their apartments yesterday. The company had issued a detailed schedule for delivery of the houses, which takes place in phases. All the tenants in the first batch would be moving into their flats by the end of this week, while the next batch is scheduled to receive their keys on February 8 and February 9. Workers helping a family move into his Barwa apartment. The process is expected to be completed by mid-February. “About 80 percent of the first batch tenants have already received their keys. The remaining could not complete the formalities within the scheduled time and we have given them more time,” said the official. He added that about 50 percent this batch were nationals. The houses are provided with all basic amenities including water and electricity, he said. Access to the sprawling premises has been made easy with a newly constructed road leading from the Abu Hamour. Parking lots are available infront of each housing unit. Several additional facilities planned in the housing complex would be completed in two months. All the tenants have been exempted from paying the February rents but they are required to pay the water and electricity bills for the month, said the official. the peninsula http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=February2009&file=Local_News2009020413117.xml

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