By Omer Bilal ISLAMABAD, Feb 17 (INP-WealthPK): A country of over  220 million people, Pakistan is facing a housing shortage of over nine million units. To bridge this shortage, the government has launched the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme to provide low-cost housing to the citizens, especially those who cannot afford to have a decent shelter. The project has caused an uptick in the construction sector directly benefiting over a dozen allied industries. Besides this housing programme, the focus is also on prefabricated or hybrid housing units to meet the growing needs of houses in the country. In this regard, the help of Chinese investors is encouraging government-to-private and private-to-private sector collaboration to build low-cost prefabricated houses and high-rise structures. Although modular methods have been used for high-rise apartment blocks elsewhere in the world, it is China that has in recent years enhanced its hybrid or prefabricated technology to a great extent. China has been finishing more skyscrapers than any other country in the world. There is a plan to construct multi-story prefabricated houses in Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan with a population of over 110 million people. In line with the affordable/low-cost, energy-efficient housing project as envisioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan, a model prefabricated house was inaugurated by Amer Aslam Khan, the deputy chairman of Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority, at Small Industrial Estate, Faisalabad, in February 2021. The prefabricated house was constructed by Easy Prefabricated Homes (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Henan DR Construction Group Co. Ltd of China. The one-storey sample house and a two-storeyed five-marla sample house were built out of prefabricated materials at Easy Fabricated Homes Factory in M3 Industrial Park, Faisalabad. The two-storey sample house consists of ground floor having one living room, two bedrooms with bathrooms and one kitchen, while the first floor contains two bedrooms with bathrooms, a living room, and a balcony. It has a total covered area of 1,732 square feet. Tiles have been laid on all the floors. Outer walls have been constructed with cement boards. The lifespan of these units is estimated to be minimum 50 years. Mian Majid Ali, the strategic and administrative adviser at Small Industrial Estate, Faisalabad, said that the hybrid technology houses can be built in the bare minimum time. “A 5-marla double-story fully-furnished house can be put up within seven days.” Mr Ali says initially 700 low-cost houses will be built within one month in the small industrial estate, which has the capacity to build 4,800 units a month. He said it has been planning to construct hybrid housing units in different districts with the help of the Punjab government. He added that the cities where such houses will be built include Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal. Mr Ali said that initially 700 families will get benefit directly by having eco-friendly apartments, and an estimated 1,500 people will be employed directly in the construction of prefabricated houses. According to Mr Ali, 1,000 such houses will only consume one MW of solar PV, whereas they are resistant to earthquake of up to 9 magnitudes. These houses offer strong resistance against heat, sound, water and fire. A three-marla house costs Rs1.45 million. Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is facing a 2.1 million shortage of houses, is in talks with a Chinese company for launching two schemes worth Rs396 billion to build 220,000 single-story prefabricated houses in the province. “There have been various meetings between the KP government and a Chinese company. The deal is likely to be inked very soon,” said Amer Aslam Khan, deputy chairman of Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority.