The Al-Balad Al-Amin Development and Urban Regeneration Company, which is entirely owned by the Makkah municipality, will establish a domestic train network in the Holy City, the company's CEO Ibrahim Al-Baloushi announced Friday.
He said the network would link the Haramain Express Train from Madinah to the Grand Mosque and the holy sites through the Mashair system (Makkah Metro).
"The company has completed the technical study for the project and begun conducting feasibility studies. The project will be offered for bidding among companies in the third quarter of this year," he said.
Al-Baloushi said though Al-Balad Al-Amin is a public company, it is being managed with the mentality of a private organization. "The company is a partner of the private sector. It was not established to compete with this sector in the market but to establish projects that can be beneficial both to the national economy and citizens," he said.
Al-Baloushi said the company would execute four projects that would provide 15,000 subsidized housing units in five to seven years. "Makkah at present needs 80,000 to 100,000 housing units," he said.
According to him, the units will be built in the districts of Um Al-Joud, Al-Ekaishiyah in the south, Al-Rashidiyah in the east and the Haj Road north of Makkah.
The CEO revealed that there were plans to develop five rundown areas in the heart of Makkah, including Al-Kadwah, Jabal Sharashif, Al-Nikasah, Al-Zihour and Al-Khalidiah 2.
He said Jabal Sharashif would be the first area to be offered for development to the private sector in August. "The development process will include the expansion of roads and the completion of the basic infrastructure to make them attractive to tourists," he said.
Al-Baloushi noted that the provision of services in Makkah was not limited to the 1.8 million inhabitants but would also extend to cover 10 million people who annually come to the Holy City for Haj, Umrah or visits.
He said though the company is hardly one year old, it was able to launch the Um Al-Joud real estate project consisting of 4,000 housing units, of which 2,500 will be sold to the public at subsidized prices. "We are currently studying three other locations for the construction of more housing units," he said.
Al-Baloushi said the company is intent on developing areas that could be attractive to tourists and provide them with enough information about Islam and the history of Makkah.
source : http://abna.ir/
