JEDDAH: The construction of Makkah’s Jabal Omar project will be completed within 30 months, Abdul Rahman Faqeeh, chairman of Makkah Construction Company, said here on Sunday night. “The plan includes a number of residential towers and 40 hotels,” Faqeeh told a press conference.
The SR12 billion project is located in a mountainous area close to the Grand Mosque. The towers will accommodate 34,500 pilgrims. “The project is being developed in areas around the Grand Mosque,” Faqeeh said, adding that the new project would cover 230,000 sq. meters.
It will create a model residential and commercial center with new roads, pathways, tunnels, electric stairs, and other facilities.
The project will create prayer areas for 78,000 worshipers and will be linked to the Grand Mosque’s sound system. “These prayer areas could be considered an indirect expansion of the mosque,” Faqeeh said.
The project has taken into consideration the environment and the topography of the area.
The groundbreaking for the second largest project after the Haram expansion was started two years ago.
Concrete mix started flowing to the foundations of four towers overlooking the Ibrahim Street and two towers on the Umm Al-Qura road today. “It was a race against time to sign many agreements with various companies for utilities such as telephone, water and sewage system to simultaneously serve 45,000 pilgrims,” he added.
Faqeeh also held discussions with top executives of the Hilton hotel for managing several residential and hotel towers in the project on Sunday.
Jabal Omar company is also studying tenders from various top class hotel companies such as Sheraton and Move & Pick to manage some of the residential and hotel towers being built as part of the project, Fakeeh said.
“The speed is a vital factor for us, as more than 200 hotels have been demolished in order to implement the Jabal Omar project,” he said.
He added that the project would also build a mosque to accommodate 10,000 worshippers and also a conference hall overlooking the Grand Mosque with a seating capacity for 2,000 people.
“Our meeting was related to managing some of the 40 hotels and residential towers,” Jean-Paul Herzog, Hilton’s president for Middle East and Africa, said.
— With input from Galal Fakkar
