Eid prayers in the city’s main Diera Eid Grounds will be offered on Tuesday in the presence of Prince Sattam, vice governor of Riyadh province, who will join hundreds of thousands of citizens and expatriates.
“Six main slaughterhouses, whose slaughtering capacities range from 400 heads to 800 heads per hour, will be directly supervised by the Riyadh municipality,” said Salah Al-Dosairy, a municipality spokesman.
The Passport Department has also deployed a huge team to work during the Eid holidays to handle urgent cases, said Salim Al-Bulaihid, director general of the Riyadh Passport Office. To facilitate the slaughtering of animals, 300 temporary licenses have been given for different venues across the city to be used as slaughterhouses during the three days of Eid, said Al-Dosairy.
About 100 official veterinarians will work to ensure health and safety standards are met. The municipality has also designated Al-Aziziya Market, Al-Naseem Market and Al-Oraija Market as the city’s three main markets for selling and buying sacrificial animals.
Yaris Al-Otaibi, a Saudi owner of a huge herd at Al-Aziziya Market, said: “The animals were costlier this year compared to last year.” He added the Najdi lambs were on sale for between SR1,200 and SR2,200 each, Naimi for SR1,200 to SR1,500 each, while Sawakinis were fetching between SR600 and SR1,000 each. The average price for camels has increased to SR4,000 this year compared to SR2,800 last year, said Beshir Ahmed, a Sudanese seller. Nevertheless, livestock markets have been busy with many people flocking to buy animals.
Ahmed said that the rise in prices of goats and sheep had been caused by the growing demand for sacrificial animals. “Just see the cost of mutton in the market, which has gone up by 33 percent within the last three years. One kilogram of meat costs SR30 today compared to SR20 a couple of years ago,” he said.
Asked about arrangements made for Eid Al-Adha prayers, a spokesman for the Ministry of Islamic Affairs said prayers will also be held in about 30 open areas across Riyadh. The city is home to some 5,000 mosques, managed by the ministry. Arrangements have also been made for prayers in other mosques in case of rain.
