Ramadan Kareem to all Muslims!
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Parts of Grand Mosque expanded areas
to be opened for visitors 
10 July 2013 - 01 Ramadan 1434 H
RIYADH – Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered the opening of the ground floor, the first floor, the first mezzanine of the new expanded building, as well as the north, south and west outer squares of the expanded area to accommodate 400,000 more worshipers during the holy month of Ramadan.
This was announced by Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) here on Tuesday.
“These facilities have the capacity to accommodate an additional 400,000 faithful during Ramadan, which marks the peak season of the Umrah pilgrimage,” he said.
The expansion projects are being supervised by the Ministry of Finance. The new mosque structure, which is under construction, is part of the largest ever expansion in the history of the Grand Mosque, launched by King Abdullah in August 2011, at a cost of SR80 billion.
The total area of the existing Grand Mosque is 356,000 square meters with a capacity to accommodate 770,000 worshipers while the new expansion spreading over an area of 456,000 square meters will accommodate 1.2 million faithful.
Courtyards of the mosque’s new expansion can hold more than 250,000 worshipers.
Assaf said the King’s order also covers making available of a total of 8,050 new toilets and ablution areas in addition to refrigerated Zamzam containers in the new building and its external courtyards.
Escalators have also been readied to take people to toilets in the lower floor of the basement plaza.
There is a facility for operating the air-conditioning system for the new structure in the ground floor of the building.
Assaf said that the King also issued orders to open the ground and first floors of the expanded mataf (circumambulation area around the Ka’aba) for the faithful.
The temporary special mataf area for the elderly and people with special needs and those using wheelchairs will also be opened during Ramadan.
Though the expansion would increase capacity of mataf from 48,000 to 130,000 per hour, the ongoing expansion work has reduced its capacity to 22,000 an hour, and this prompted the authorities to reduce the number of foreign Haj pilgrims by 20 percent and domestic pilgrims by 50 percent for the coming Haj.
The new expansion will be linked with the existing mosque and masaa (the running area between Safa and Marwa) with a series of bridges.
The masaa expansion has already been completed and that increased its capacity from 44,000 to 118,000 pilgrims per hour.
The Haram expansion project covers 400,000 square meters in the northwest and northeast of the Grand Mosque.
It consists of three parts – construction of a new building; expansion and development of courtyards around the mosque, including walkways, tunnels and toilets; and development of service facilities for air-conditioning, electricity and drinking water.
Real estate properties appropriated for the project are valued at more than SR40 billion.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index...20130710172989 8 July 2013
