The civic body has held a meeting in this regard with landlords in the area, which is surrounded by Al Ittihad Road, Al Muraqqabat Road, Abu Bakr Al Siddique Road, and Al Maktoum Road.

The project seeks to develop the urban environment of Port Saeed, an area approximately 30,000 hectares, by providing the landlords with plots where outstanding projects can be set up, thereby increasing their financial returns. As part of the project, roads in the area will be modified and enough parking spaces will be provided along with other necessary infrastructure services and public utilities.

The meeting was attended by Hussein Nasser Lootah, Assistant Director-General of Dubai Municipality for Environment and Public Health Affairs, Abdullah AbdulRahim, Director of the Planning and Survey Department, and Nasser Hamad Bushehab, Head of the Planning Studies Section.

Explaining the project, Mr Bushehab said that its objectives included providing public services according to approved standards, creating urban squares where residents and visitors can meet, enhancing street lighting in the area and providing shades during the daytime, improving advertisement hoardings, giving the area a modern urban look, reducing pressure on the adjacent areas vis-à-vis vehicular parking spaces, and attracting major investments that take into account the importance of the area.

Mr Abdul Rahim said the existing buildings in the area would be demolished and each landlord would be compensated for the number of shares they own and as per the current rental value of their plots.

He said that there would not be any high-rise towers in the area under the new plans because the area's specifications would not suggest building towers there. "What we have for this area at present is to restructure the existing buildings. We explained this point to the landlords, most of whom welcomed the idea. They need not spend any money for the restructuring, because there is a funding authority for this project with the returns being offered to the landlords," Mr Abdul Rahim said.

He noted that construction in the area would exceed the present number of buildings and the financial returns would be higher than at present. "We will, however, retain the traditional Islamic architectural style of the buildings in the area," he said.

He added that there are 19 plots of land in the area of different sizes and the new buildings in the area would be of maximum four storeys.