Terming it "opportunity and momentum on a scale never seen before," Israel's Defense Ministry this week gave the go-ahead for a plan to move several major army bases from Israel's congested central region to a site deep in the southern Negev Desert.

The decade-old project, estimated to run between 2 and 3 billion shekels (about 700 million U.S. dollars), is set for immediate implementation, and will include 250,000 square meters of structures for 10,000 soldiers, covering 2.5 square kilometers, according to a Rehovot-based consultant group that is preparing the development plans.

"Along with the transfer of bases and operations to the Negev, the challenge will be to leverage the IDF's (Israel Defense Forces) move to bring about maximum economic and social impact that will bring the Negev from a peripheral area to a central one," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told mayors of towns and regional councils to be affected by the move at a meeting in Dimona, an army statement said on Thursday.

"Everything that's happening in the Negev today, is due to the influence of the IDF's move to the south," said Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who also oversees ministerial-level development of the Negev and Galilee.

"We're talking about a historic step that will change the demographic, economic and social face of the Negev," Shalom said, a Defense Ministry official told Xinhua.

The army said it would provide grants and housing support to military families moving to the south, to be close to the facility.

Some 40 percent of those moving are married, and 33 percent have children, with about 60 percent of them between the ages of 22 and 30, according to the IDF.

The army plans to sell off several major existing bases in the greater Tel Aviv area, freeing up about 4 square kilometers of prime real estate, according to the Globes business daily.

Among the sites in question are the sprawling Tel Hashomer and Tzrifin bases near Rishon Lezion, and properties between Tel Aviv and Herzliya, said, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Hezi Mashita, the IDF's Negev Transfer Administration chief.

According to Mashita, the project would take about a year and a half or less to complete.

Meanwhile, Defense Ministry Director-General Udi Shani has said that "Work on the ground will begin within days or weeks. This is a great day for the south."