Government | Monday 12 September, 2016 3:47 am |

The Grand Mosque in Makkah has the capacity to accommodate around 1.8 million pilgrims, following its expansion, reflecting the keenness of the Kingdom to care for Haj and Umrah pilgrims.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman launched five major projects last year, including the main building expansion project, squares, pedestrian tunnels, Grand Mosque central service station and the first ring road.
King Salman issued directives to take advantage of the space available in the building under the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques project.
According to local media, directives were also issued to take advantage of all the floors to accommodate up to 1,000,850 worshipers at the Grand Mosque and enable 107,000 people to perform tawaf (circumambulation) per hour.
The capacity of toilets and places of ablution whose total number reached 16,300. Escalators and lifts are operating around the clock at the Grand Mosque in addition to air conditioning system, lighting and sound system, TV surveillance and fire control system.
A report issued by the Ministry of Finance in this regard revealed that projects within the major third expansion of the Grand Mosque include main building of the Grand Mosque, Masaa and Mataf, external squares, bridges, terraces, central services, services tunnel, hospital and pedestrian tunnels, transit stations and bridges leading to the Grand Mosque, the first ring road surrounding the Grand mosque and the infrastructure area, including power stations and water reservoirs.
The report said that construction area has covered 1,470,000 square meters of area and expansion of 320,000 square meters to accommodate 300,000 worshipers.
Construction area covered in the squares is 175,000 square meters to accommodate 280,000 worshipers, while the bridges’ area is 45,000 square meters to accommodate 50,000 worshipers.
The construction area in the services’ buildings is 550,000 square meters to accommodate 310,000 worshipers, in addition to 263,000 square meters of area of the eastern terraces to accommodate 150,000 worshippers.