Tunisia has invited companies to build new homes to replace some of the huts that house the country's poorer city dwellers, seeking to ease social tensions that toppled the former regime last year.
The Ministry of Equipment launched an international tender on Friday to build 12,000 homes in several Tunisian cities, after unrest spread over poor housing and lack of jobs for the country's rapidly growing population.
The government is under pressure to remove huts and improve opportunities for those who complain they are still marginalised a year and a half after Tunisia ousted its leader and held free elections in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.
It said the cost of the new homes would not exceed $22,000, compared with $60,000 to $120,000 on the commercial housing market. It set an 27 October deadline for tenders.
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