A TOTAL of 187 low-cost houses will be built by A1 Construction at the Ngwe Zin Yaw model village at Mawlamyine Gyun township by the end of the first week of August, the company’s manager, U Ko Ko Khaing, said last week.

“By the end of July we have already finished 20 and the rest are under construction. We hope they will be finalised by the first week of August,” he said.

Just over 600 low-cost houses are being built throughout the seven villages of Mawlamyine Gyun but U Ko Ko Khaing said priority is being given to Ngwe Zin Yaw. “We regard this as a model village and will build 187 houses there before moving onto other villages: We will build 149 houses at Hlaing Phone Lay, 85 at Yuzana, 79 at Myitto, 47 at Gant Gaw, 40 at Thaung Phone and 20 at Nyein Oo Nat Moo,” he said.U Ko Ko Khaing said that A1 Company and TZTN are responsible for building a total of 1200 low-cost houses in Mawlamyine Gyun, with the latter building 593 of these.

Each house will have a wooden frame, a floor space of 320 square feet and sit within a 2400-square-foot compound. Each will have a bamboo fence, an outdoor toilet and cost about K600,000. The requisite building materials – wood, nails and corrugated iron – are being supplied by the government at cost. U Ko Ko Khaing said A1 is also responsible for the rebuilding and/or reconstruction of 46 community buildings at Kan Be village in Labutta township, adding that seven of these are already finished.