Saudi Arabia's housing ministry has called upon developers to halt work at a major residential project along the Riyadh-Dammam-Qatif highway and called for redesign of the internal and external areas, said a report.

Eight Saudi development companies had won bids for the Housing 2 project in Dammam which involved building and selling of 4,800 housing units, reported Arab News.

The ministry issued an official letter on Thursday to these developers instructing them not to start implementing the new housing project, stated the report, citing sources.

These companies had recently completed the internal and external outlines, and designs of the project and were prepared to begin work, but the decision has now halted the process and called for redesign of internal and external areas. Previous designs cost more than SR80 million ($21.3 million).

The redesigning of the project will further delay it by six months to a year, said the report.

The decision has posed significant losses for development companies that have been linked to the ministry via official contracts, as well as with housing beneficiaries expecting to receive the completed project within 24 months, it added.

According to sources, the eight developers will now have to provide the ministry with proposed plans for buildings after taking into account important requirements and standards, such as increasing the percentage of construction and building areas to cover up to 50 per cent of the land area, ensuring buildings include a maximum of seven storeys, and increasing construction to include a maximum of three apartments on each floor, stated the report.

The ministry called for developers to comply with these requirements and accordingly provide several other new designs, it added.