ALEPPO, Syria — Works started Aug. 8 on a residential complex project in the Euphrates Shield area aimed at accommodating by 2019 around 1,500 families that have been mainly displaced from eastern Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus to camps scattered on the outskirts of al-Bab city.

The construction plan was signed Aug. 6 at the headquarters of the local council in al-Bab in the presence of Mohammed Othman, president of the council and a representative of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), and representatives of eastern Ghouta traders residing in al-Bab.

Ali Rajab, the director of the services office at the local council of al-Bab, told Al-Monitor, “The council has offered a plot of public property land for the construction of the residential project. The required engineering plans have been finalized and the project will include a mosque and a school, among other services. The support that AFAD will provide for the project will include the construction sector. Merchants of eastern Ghouta based in al-Bab city are also contributing to this project, and we have yet to reach an estimated financial value for the project.”

Rajab said that details of the construction project will be announced soon in order to reveal each party’s contribution.