Saudi forges ahead with expansion to religious sites
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Projects designed to expand capacity at Makkah’s Grand Mosque and other Islamic holy sites will be completed in about three years, enabling Saudi Arabia to accommodate more pilgrims, Makkah’s mayor told Reuters last week. 
Osama bin Fadl Al-Bar said the pilgrimage-related projects were a top state priority and would be finished on time, despite widespread delays in the Saudi construction sector as the kingdom grapples with the effects of sustained low oil prices.
“All of these projects are being developed to serve our guests and accommodate more of them,” said Bar.
The projects will be completed by 2020, he said, while the new King Abdulaziz International Airport and the Grand Mosque expansion will both be finished in either 2017 or 2018.
Haramain, a high-speed railway linking the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, will be completed in late 2016 and will undergo testing before opening to the public in 2017.
A final project, a 4-km tunnel and two metro stations that will form part of the planned $16.5 billion Makkah metro project, will be completed in 2020.
The work comes on top of recent expansion and construction including dozens of new hotels, the world’s biggest clock tower looming over the Grand Mosque, and expanded access routes across Makkah which have cost many billions of dollars.
After work is finished at the Grand Mosque it will have a total capacity of 2.2 million worshippers, compared to the current 600,000.
Up to 400,000 people per hour will be able to circumambulate the sacred Kaaba at the centre of the mosque, said Bar.
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