The flats will be built on the land of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and distributed among expatriates on "no loss no profit" and country quota basis.

Announcing this, Joint Secretary of the Ministry Syed Md Nurul Islam yesterday said, "the housing area will also have various civic amenities including schools, mosques, community centres."

He informed that the size of the flats would be around 1000, 1200, 1500 and 1800 square feet each and price of one square foot would be Tk 2,100-2,200.

He said, "already we have selected three low-bidder housing companies including Eastern Housing and Concord Real State and now we are waiting for work order." He also said that the work order is likely to be issued by this month.

Earlier, the government allocated 3,300 plots to expatriate Bangladeshis in Purbachal project.

There are allegations that the expatriates are deceived when purchasing plots and face complications in taking possession of the land. This project will help the expatriates avert these problems, he said.

"It will also fulfil the desire of expatriate Bangladeshis who want to be an owner of a flat in the capital city," he added.