$3.2bn residential centre planned
Makkah: Makkah Construction Company (MCC) is to build a number of residential towers at Jabal Omar, a mountainous area close to the Grand Mosque in Makkah, at a cost of SR12 billion ($3.2 billion).

The project will include a model residential and commercial centre with new roads, pathways, tunnels, and other facilities, said company chairman Abdul Rahman Faqeeh.
The company has already bought land in the area for SR490 million and will soon begin construction, the chairman said. The new project would cover 230,000 sq m and the towers will accommodate 34,500 pilgrims.
Faqeeh, also said a new joint stock company would be set up to implement the giant project.
A feasibility study was conducted at a cost of SR30 million. The project will create prayer areas for 78,000 worshippers and will be linked to the Grand Mosque’s sound system.

200 more tents for Mina
Mina: Saudi investors are planning a SR6 billion  ($1.6 billion) project to help accommodate a quarter of a million more pilgrims in Mina by setting up some 200 tents in the surrounding mountains.
“Some 200 tents, each with a capacity to house 150 to 2,000 pilgrims will be constructed under the Mina project,” said Abdul Majeed Al Jeraisy, chairman of the National Haj Committee.
Jeraisy said the investors were awaiting official approval. The government has already constructed some 44,000 air-conditioned and fireproof canvas tents in the plains of Mina.
Plans are under way to expand camping areas in the holy sites to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims, which is estimated to reach 3.8 million by the end of the current Five-Year Development Plan (2000/2005).
The Ministry of Public Works and Housing, which carried out the Mina tent project, had said that it plans to increase the camping area to more than 2.2 million sq m by the end of the development plan. This would represent 37 per cent of the total area of Mina, which measures six million sq m.

Foundation stone laid for college
Riyadh: The foundation stone for a SR100 million ($26.6 million) nursing and medical sciences college for women at King Abdul Aziz National Guard Medical City in Riyadh, was laid Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, recently. Work is to be completed within two-and-half years.
The college, designed to admit 1,000 female students, will help to meet the country’s future requirement for an estimated 100,000 nurses, and will admit 300 students per year, until full capacity is reached. The buildings will include dormitories for 500 students, classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories.