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JEDDAH: Makkah governorate will soon announce three mega-projects established by the governor, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.
Governorate spokesman Sultan Al-Dosari said that the projects will launch around the end of this year.
He said that one of the projects that will be inaugurated soon is phase 4-5 of the Jeddah Seafront Development project, which aims to provide an entertainment space for Jeddah’s residents and visitors.
The other projects he referred to were the test phases of the new King Abdul Aziz International Airport, which will start operating in Ramadan — according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) — and the Haramain Express Train connecting Makkah and Madinah through Jeddah and Rabigh, which will be officially inaugurated in the first quarter of 2018.
All three projects, Al-Dosari explained, are in line with Makkah’s strategic development plan, which aims to balance the region’s development to reduce migration to cities and make neighboring regions attractive to residents.
He added that, as governor of Makkah, Prince Khaled has faced numerous challenges over the past decade. His first priority was to find a solution for the water scarcity and frequent cuts, drain Al-Misk Lake, and put an end to the piles of garbage in Jeddah. Solving these issues took four years.
The structure of the emirate has also changed, Al-Dosari said, and some new effective administrations have been added. There are some 2,568 projects currently ongoing in the region, he said.
In the holy city itself, four ring roads have been constructed; government departments were moved out of Mina; the General Services Center in Al-Shumaisi was launched and seven new neighborhoods were developed.
On the human level, he said, the biggest project was the correction of the status of more than 250,000 Burmese residing in the Kingdom.
There have been several important new projects announced for the city of Makkah recently, including the first phase of the bus project and the ongoing King Abdul Aziz Parallel Road project, which will provide a number of high-quality hotels and mosques and will be completed by the end of 2019.