UK-based contractor Broadway Construction Company has been chosen by the city government of Baghdad to build the first phase of a 240,000-home expansion of Sadr City, news website Zawya reports, quoting the official Iraqi News Agency.

Sadr city is a suburb in the northwest of Baghdad with a population of 1 million people. The first phase will see some 190,000 houses built.

The Baghdad Secretariat has been allocated funds for part of the work from the state budget. Mohammed Al-Rabei, the secretariat’s information manager, said almost 80% of the project would be completed by the middle of next year, including the necessary road, electricity and water infrastructure.

He said: “The Sadr City expansion project is proceeding on schedule … we aim to construct more than 240,000 houses to match the increase in the population.”

The Iraqi cabinet has endorsed the development and extension of the city, which was formerly known as “Saddam City”.

In July last year, Hamid Naim Al-Ghazi, the cabinet’s secretary-general, said the expansion of Sadr City would establish state-of-the-art health and educational facilities, as well as a network of roads and bridges linking it with surrounding areas.