Makkah News and Updates

Govt plans to expand low-cost Haj programs


EARLY PREPARATION: Officials have been asked to start preparing
and allocating camps for pilgrims as soon as possible.

Saturday 3 January 2015

Minister of Haj Bandar Hajjar has announced that the government plans to expand the country’s low-cost Haj programs.

Hajjar said that officials are working to set up programs that would ensure control over the fees charged for citizens and residents going on Haj.

The minister made the announcement on Thursday during a briefing at his office on the operational plan of the General Administration of Local Pilgrims for the coming year. This included a review of the efficiency of last year’s operational plan.

Hajjar urged officials to start preparing and allocating camps for pilgrims as soon as possible, and complete all procedures to link agencies and service providers electronically.

He also called for the expansion of media and awareness programs, the eradication of fake Haj offices, and the development of procedures related to the booking and issuing of licenses. He said officials should also provide the public with more information on train services, the Jamarat bridge and slaughterhouses.

At the meeting it was also announced that 18 ministry committees have started preparations to oversee the election of tawafa officials, including ensuring that all voter information is accurate and voters are eligible to participate.

This comes in the wake of the committee recently releasing the names of eligible candidates and voters on the ministry’s website.

The minister is expected to inaugurate next week the 11th annual ceremony to honor 125 field groups, 22 administrators and 10 mutawwifs who excelled in service provision during Haj last year.

According to mutawwif Zohair Sedayo, vice president of the organizing committee of tawafa companies, the ceremony aims to encourage excellent service provision for visitors and pilgrims.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/683751

Mataf expansion updates

3 January 2015


































New Mukabar'iyah is peeking behind the Kaaba






new arches


via @bismillahsalawa




via Mohy Gadalla

Historical Columns

back in new Ottoman Porticos

3 January 2015 - Arrival







First Column installed
in new Ottoman Porticos

6 January 2015

Saudi's Jabal Omar signs 4 bln riyal loan
refinancing for Makkah project


The company is building a number of hotels in the holy city
as it taps into demand from growing inflows of Islamic pilgrims. (File photo: AFP

By Reuters | Riyadh
Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Saudi Arabia's Jabal Omar Development Company has secured a 4 billion riyal ($1.07 billion) loan to refinance part of an existing facility it signed in 2012 to fund its real estate project in Makkah, it said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's largest listed developer by market value said the new loan from National Commercial Bank, to fund the project's first phase, will be stretched over a period of 15 years, instead of the eight years of the previous facility.

It did not give the details of the previous loan but said it was signed with six banks in June 2012.

Several companies in the Gulf have come to the loan market in recent months to refinance existing loans at more favourable borrowing rates as cash-rich local banks compete for deals.

The company is building a number of hotels in the holy city as it taps into demand from growing inflows of Islamic pilgrims.

Jabal Omar said it will repay the loan from the expected revenue of five hotels as well as revenue from leasing shops and selling some residential units in the project's first phase. Repayment would start in September 2017, it said.

In November, the company reported its first quarterly profit since 2009, earning 431.3 million riyals in the fourth quarter of the Hijri calendar, which it follows in preparing its financial statements.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/busi...a-project.html

Hajj season 2014

5 October 2014



full screen + zoom: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/ima..._ISLAM-HAJ.jpg

Victim of suicide attack laid to rest in Makkah


Funeral prayers are carried out at the Grand Mosque in Makkah for
the border guard officials killed in yesterday's suicide bombing in Arar.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Thousands of people attended the funeral on Tuesday of the Border Guard officer killed by a suicide attacker on the Kingdom’s border with Iraq on Monday.

Brig. Audah Al-Balawi was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up. The funeral was held after Fajr prayer at the Grand Mosque in Makkah on Tuesday. Grand Mosque Imam Sheikh Abdullah Al-Johani led the prayer and then the body was taken to the Al-Adl graveyard in the city.

Those in attendance included the director general of the Border Guard. The deceased man’s family included his brothers Salem, Saad Ali, Muhammed and Ahmed, and sons Muhammad, Ryan, Sultan and Hattan.

The Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement on Monday that the four attackers killed three Border Guard officers. Two of the terrorists blew themselves up and the other two were shot and killed by Saudi officers. The incident took place at the Suef border crossing with Iraq just before dawn.

A Border Guard patrol had attempted to stop the infiltrators, but they opened fire at the officers. In gunfight that followed, one of the infiltrators was killed. When the officers tried to persuade another to surrender, he detonated an explosive device he was carrying and was killed instantly.

The remaining two terrorists were caught while attempting to escape but one of them detonated a bomb he was carrying, while the other was shot. Al-Balawi was killed in the explosion. The other martyred guards are Cpl. Tariq Halwani and Pvt. Yahya Nujmi. The injured officers are Col. Salem Al-Anazi and Pvt. Yahya Muqri.

According to his relatives, Nujmi, who came from Mowaqeda in Jazan, signed his wedding contract with his bride-to-be last week. He was the sole breadwinner of his family, comprising his parents, two brothers and five sisters. Halwani, who was married seven months ago, had been planning to visit his wife in Jazan.

http://www.arabnews.com/news/685801

Mataf expansion to be ‘completed before Haj’

Thursday 8 January 2015

The ongoing expansion of mataf, or circumambulation area around the Kaaba, would be completed before this year’s Haj, said Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, head of the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques, on Wednesday.

Inspecting the Haram expansion project here, he said thousands of pilgrims would be able to use the expanded mataf during the upcoming Haj season. “Most of the work would be completed before Ramadan in preparation for the peak Umrah season,” he said.

Al-Sudais said the third phase of the mataf expansion was progressing well and would increase its capacity to 105,000 pilgrims an hour. There would be no obstacles in the mataf area, which would be expanded and will have modern facilities.

He said officials were doing their best to ensure that pilgrims are provided with excellent services. The completed areas of the Haram expansion project, including the new building, would be opened to worshippers to reduce congestion caused by work on the mataf, he said.

Meanwhile, Al-Sudais condemned the terrorist attack on a Border Guard checkpoint in the northern city of Arar that resulted in the death of three Saudi soldiers including Brig. Audah Al-Balawi, a commander in the Northern Border Region.

He said the attack was against the teachings of Islam, which urge Muslims to protect the lives and honor of others. He commended the role of security forces in defending the Kingdom, its people and holy places.

“This is the treachery of the enemies of Islam who want to make this land of Islam a battleground for them. This is flagrant aggression and a terrorist act,” Al-Sudais said.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/686331

via @bismillahsalawa

_____________________


b/w 22 Dec. 2014 - 4 Jan. 2015




phase 2 started


















via ‎مشروع الملك عبدالله بن عبد العزيز لرفع الطاقه الاستيعابيه للمطاف‎


January 2015

General statistics
of the Umrah season 1436/2014-15



Until 15 Rabi Al-Awaal 1436 - 5 January 2015

Total Number of the Mutamirs:

837,249
______________________________________
Number expected for the whole Umrah season
6,000,000

* Mutamir/s: is/are the one who come into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
to perform Umrah rituals and visit the Prophet's Holy Mosque.

Statistics from Ministry of Hajj