More than 100 trillion rials ($3.6 billion at official exchange rate) is required to complete the Mehr housing project, deputy minister of roads and urban development Ahmad Asghari Mehrabadi told IRNA yesterday. The government says it is determined to complete the Mehr housing project by the end of the first half of the upcoming fiscal year (starting March 21). The project was initiated in 2007 by the former administration. It was expected to provide two million low-income strata of the society with housing units through free land and cheap credits. But the nationwide scheme slowed down later due to lack of funding. So far, there have been conflicting reports on the extent of the project’s progress.
