MAKKAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal yesterday inaugurated new electronic services for issuing pilgrim housing permits and health certificates. The new services are provided in association with the Makkah municipality and qualified engineering offices in the city.
Makkah Mayor Osama Al-Bar said the new pilgrim housing regulations allowed approved engineering offices to check housing facilities in the city before licensing them to provide housing facilities for pilgrims.
“The new electronic system links engineering offices with the Pilgrim’s Housing Committee. The offices will inspect the buildings and inform the committee so that it may take a final decision on issuing a license,” he said.
Al-Bar said the municipality and the Civil Defense had approved a number of engineering offices in Makkah to provide the service.
“We are studying the files of some more engineering offices in order to authorize them to provide the service,” he added.
Housing facilities are required for 1.8 million pilgrims, he said, adding that the committee had approved a number of buildings last year to house about 500,000.
“Permits are required for buildings to accommodate 1.3 million pilgrims this year,” Al-Bar pointed out.
The committee, which is chaired by the governor, began issuing housing licenses last Monday.
In another development, Prince Khaled attended the graduation of the 57th group from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah yesterday. Some 9,600 graduates received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during the convocation.
Walid bin Hussein Abu Al-Faraj, president of the university, thanked Prince Khaled for attending the ceremony, adding it would have a great impact on the university’s students.
He thanked the government for its generous support to the university since its inception. “This support has helped the university provide various courses that are required for the country’s development.”
