You have contributed 0.4% of this topic
Thursday 21 June 2012
Visitors who come to Madinah to pray at the Prophet's Mosque have been complaining about the exceptional high rates of hotels and furnished apartments, especially in the area around the mosque. They have urged the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) to intervene and put an end to the soaring prices.
According to sources working in the sector, the occupancy rates in hotels near the Prophet's Mosque have reached more than 98 percent, while the prices have increased by over 65 percent. They said the visitors were complaining that there were no vacancies and that reservations were not available until after the Haj season, which falls in October.
Ahmed Al-Dhiyabi, a Saudi citizen, said he had been searching in vain for a room or a suite in the hotels close to the mosque. "All receptionists told me there were no rooms available. I tried my luck in the furnished apartments away from the mosque only to find that their prices were unbearable," he said.
Pakistani Mujeeburrahman Afzal advised visitors not to look for accommodation in the central area. "You will just be wasting your time," he told the visitors.
He said the rates of furnished apartments had gone from SR 250 per day to more than SR 420. "I had no choice but to go to Pakistan House 2, which has been allocated for Pakistani pilgrims and visitors," he added.
Ahmed Fallatah, a Saudi national, asked the SCTA to step in quickly to control the prices of hotels and furnished apartments in the city. The commission had allowed the furnished apartments all over the Kingdom to increase their rates in the high summer season by 50 percent and hotels by 30 percent.
Fallatah said despite these limits set by the SCTA, the facilities had increased their prices by more than 65 percent.
A director of the division of rooms in a hotel who did not want to be identified said occupancy in hotels in the central area had reached more than 98 percent. He pointed out that most hotels preferred to sign contracts with Haj and Umrah companies that bring pilgrims and visitors from outside. "These long-term contracts ensure the hotels with occupancy throughout the year," he said.
Ahmed Al-Sahali, an official in another hotel at the central area, said the hotels were competing against each other by providing special services to the guests. "We also provide special facilities to businessmen on executive floors," he added.
He noted that hotel occupancy was usually high during this time of the year, due to school summer vacation. "This year, the holidays coincided with the Umrah season, taking occupancy to its highest level," he said.
Al-Sahali feared that visitors would face yet more problems finding accommodation in Madinah during Ramadan, which is a month away. "Finding a hotel room during the last 10 days of Ramadan is next to impossible," he warned.
http://www.arabnews.com/madinah-visi...out-high-rents
21 June 2012
MAKKAH — About 40 Haj and Umrah companies have challenged a decision by the Ministry of Haj to impose fines against them in a lawsuit filed at the Administrative Court of the Board of Grievances.
The companies serving domestic pilgrims claim that measures taken by the ministerial committee that looked into complaints against them were illegal, as the committee did not follow proper procedures. They argue that the committee did not have qualified Shariah and judicial experts and did not follow Shariah norms stipulated by the Council of Ministers while reaching its decision.
The Ministry of Haj has slapped fines on 34 Haj and Umrah companies due to violations. It has also ordered eight other companies to compensate injured pilgrims due to negligence in addition to repaying the the full amount levied for services that were not delivered.
Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar said, “The committee for ensuring adequate Haj service to pilgrims that was formed by a royal decree has verified many instances of violations by some companies during the Haj season last year and issued many decisions.”
Saad Jameel Al-Qurashi, former chairman of the National Committee for Haj and Umrah, described the decision as “unfair, arbitrary and hasty.”
Informed sources say the company owners have formed a bloc to unify their efforts to challenge the ministry’s decision in court. They will submit their objections in the court within 60 days.
Hajjar said a total of 106 violations had been detected by regulatory authorities following pilgrims’ complaints, which resulted in the action. The amount of fines slapped against the companies ranged from SR10,000 to SR100,000, which is the maximum limit.
The committee also looked into 46 cases against unlicensed companies that did not comply with the regulations and fined them between SR10,000 and SR100,000 based on the nature of the violation and the damage caused. Hajjar thanked outstanding efforts by the Control and Investigation Committee to uncover the violations.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index...20120621127692
The Holy Kaaba in June rain
EDDAH: ESSAM AL-GHALIB | ARAB NEWS STAFF
Monday 25 June 2012
Licensed taxi drivers and passengers at King Abdulaziz International Airport are calling on airport police to put a stop to unlicensed drivers using their private cars as taxis to pick up passengers illegally.
As passengers exit the baggage claim and customs area, individuals sometimes as young as 16 and as old as 70 years of age offer them rides at half the prices the licensed airport taxis charge.
Roshdan Murshid Al-Jihani, 50, a Saudi national and licensed airport taxi driver said that unlicensed drivers are taking the food out of his children’s mouths and are forcing him to work longer hours, time he spends away from his family.
“I arrived this morning at 8:30 a.m. to queue at the taxi stand,” Al-Jihani said. “It’s now 3 p.m. and I have just barely reached the front of the line. If I’m lucky I will get three long distance trips to South Jeddah or somewhere far away by 8:30 a.m. tomorrow.
“These illegal drivers simply come to the airport, wait for the next flight to arrive and ask passengers if they need a taxi. Within a few minutes they are on their way somewhere, charging whatever they want. That money is being taken out of my family’s pocket.”
Al-Jihani said the licensed taxi drivers couldn’t begin to compete with the unlicensed ones as these had little overhead. Licensed taxi drivers must meet stringent safety and insurance standards.
“To be a licensed airport taxi, your car cannot be older than five years,” he said. “So every five years I have to spend over SR 100,000 to buy a new car. Then there is the upkeep, the insurance and the airport fees.
It’s no wonder they charge half what we do. But they can be dangerous. What if one of them pulls over on a dark street and robs you? No one will ever find him. People who take those taxis are playing with their safety.”
Hoshan Saleh Al-Hoshan, 31, an ARAMCO engineer who had just arrived at KAIA stood at the taxi line and was outraged at the prices the licensed drivers were quoting him.
“We need taxi prices listed somewhere like they have in Bangladesh,” Al-Hoshan said. “Bangladesh’s taxis are better organized than the ones we have here. These airport taxis charge SR 80 to go to Hamra. Why should I pay that when I can rent a car for SR 90 a day.”
Al-Jihani says that all airport taxi prices are set at a tariff and that passengers are given a receipt at the end of their journey.
“Any trip within Jeddah is set at a minimum of SR 60,” he said. “Trips to south Jeddah or the furthest parts of Jeddah to the airport are charged at a maximum of SR 100. Trips to Makkah are about SR 200 to SR 250, depending on the distance.”
For 23-year-old Majid, an unemployed Saudi national, a quick trip to the airport to pick up passengers illegally allows him to have spending money for the day.
“I don’t do this very often,” he said, refusing to give his last name. “Whenever I have expenses above and beyond what I get from Hafiz (SR 2,000 per month allowance for unemployed Saudis), I just come to the airport and pick someone up. I charge anything from SR 50 for trips inside Jeddah to SR 250 for a trip to Makkah.”
Although he is concerned that the police may catch him, Majid said that he had never heard of anyone being fined or jailed for poaching passengers.
A traffic police corporal at KAIA said officers are powerless to stop the illegal drivers.
“We tried to put a stop to it,” said the police corporal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But when we approach the illegal drivers, their passengers complain that the licensed ones are too expensive.
“We’ve been told many times that it’s none of our business, both by the illegal drivers and their passengers. Our job here is to control the flow of traffic in front of the terminal and to make sure no one parks there. I gave up chasing down the unlicensed drivers a long time ago. Allah is the one who decides who earns what in this life.”
The police corporal however did advise passengers arriving at any of the Kingdom’s airports to use only licensed airport taxis that are clearly marked with a set tariff.
“If you forget your wallet or phone in one of those private cars, who are you going to complain to, to get your things back,” the corporal said. “We don’t know who these individuals are, where they are from, or where they go after they pick you up. If you lose something in a taxi, or something happens to you, how are we going to find the driver?
“I’ve told people who lost things in illegal taxis, that they shouldn’t have done that and advised them to hang around the terminal in the hope of seeing the driver again.”
http://www.arabnews.com/illegal-airp...censed-drivers
EDDAH: MD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWS STAFF
Friday 29 June 2012
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered an expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah to accommodate more than 1.6 million worshippers, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf announced yesterday.
“The new expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque is part of King Abdullah’s efforts in the service of Islam and Muslims, the latest of which was the unprecedented expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah,” he said.
Al-Assaf said the expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque would extend a great service to the pilgrims and visitors who will be able to pray comfortably in the mosque and the surrounding plaza.
He said King Abdullah’s Expansion Project of the Prophet’s Mosque would be implemented in three phases. “The first phase will accommodate more than 800,000 worshippers while the second and third will accommodate an equal number of worshippers bringing the total number of people the mosque can accommodate at a gvien time to more than 1.6 million,” he said.
The minister said the new expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque would complete the other projects that the king has ordered for the welfare and comfort of the pilgrims and visitors. He recalled in this connection the ongoing expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, the expansion of the Massa (pathway between Safa and Marwa), increasing the area of the Jamarat bridge, the Makkah Development Plan, the Haramain Express Train, the Makkah Gate and the new King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.
The Prophet’s Mosque has been expanded twice. The first one was mooted during the time of King Abdul Aziz, the Kingdom's founder, in 1949. Work on the expansion started in July 1951 and took nine years to complete. The second one, called after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Fahd, started in 1984 and was completed in 1994.
During the first expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque, four minarets were added in addition to 18 ordinary staircases. During King Fahd’s rule, six new minarets were added to bring their total number to 10 and six electric staircases were established raising the number of staircases to 24.
The ground floor of the mosque has an area of 98,500 sq. meters accommodating 167,000 worshippers, the roof has an area of 67,000 sq. meters accommodating 90,000 worshippers and the surrounding plaza has a total area of 235,000 sq. meters accommodating 450,000 worshippers.
The total area of the mosque and its plaza is 400,500 sq. meters accommodating 707,00 worshippers but at the peak time as many as a million worshippers could be in the mosque at one time.
http://www.arabnews.com/new-expansio...e-ordered-king
Haram Expansion - Shameya - Central Utility Complex
by Haramain Gate Co. for Construction
February 2012
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
Please wait...
