JEDDAH, 14 June 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will lay the foundation stone for the Hail University today.
During his tour of the region, he will also open new water, educational, health and infrastructure projects worth more than SR2 billion. Crown Prince Sultan and other officials greeted the king upon his arrival at Hail Airport.
Abdullah arrived in Hail yesterday from Ahsa on the fifth leg of his current tour of the Kingdom’s regions during which he is meeting people and inaugurating new projects. The king has already visited Jubail, Alkhobar, Qatif and Ahsa.
The Hail University campus covers an area of 20 million square meters and will include colleges of engineering, computer science, medicine, science and community as well as a university hospital.
It will cost an estimated SR450 million. Hail University is one of the new institutions of higher learning established by the government as part of its efforts to provide educational facilities to students all over the country. Earlier this year, King Abdullah announced plans to establish two new universities in Tabuk and Baha, bringing the total number of government universities in the Kingdom to 17.
Other universities are located in Riyadh (three), Madinah (two), Jeddah, Makkah, Dammam, Dhahran, Abha, Qasim, Taif, Jizan, Al-Jouf and Hail. The current budget has allocated SR87.3 billion — 26 percent of the SR335-billion budget — for education.
Other projects to be opened by the king in Hail include a giant water supply system to distribute potable water to 654 townships and villages (at an estimated cost of SR1.8 billion); and the Hail-Jouf Expressway which is 340 km long (costing SR370 million), according to informed sources.
According to Ibrahim Al-Badran, secretary-general of Hail Development Authority, King Abdullah will also announce plans to establish an economic city in Hail with investment projects worth SR30 billion.
The city will include an airport for international air cargo, cold-storage, service centers for transit passengers and mineral industries, he said.
King Abdullah will be in the central region of Qasim on Thursday on the sixth leg of his tour. He will launch new projects worth SR3 billion in Qasim. Qasim Governor Prince Faisal ibn Bandar said the king would launch 28 educational projects.
In Ahsa, Abdullah launched a number of educational and manpower training projects that required more than SR1.6 billion in investment.
King Abdullah has approved the establishment of a literary club in Ahsa. Information Minister Iyad Madani said the king has instructed authorities to allocate money required to build a headquarters for the club. The king received a group of intellectuals and men of letters from the region at Ahsa Airport yesterday before leaving for Hail.
