The Tent City of Mina is chosen for World Expo 2010 (HUM)
Saudi Arabia’s arrangements for providing best available services to the guests of Allah got a shot in the arm when the tent city of Mina was picked up to be shown at a prestigious exhibition to be held in Shanghai for its town planning, facilities and world-class infrastructure. Mina is on the pilgrimage route from Makkah to nearby Mount Arafat.
Mina is one of the 55 city projects that have been selected from 226 nominations from across the world for exhibition at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai. Out of 55 cities selected, 29 are European, 10 Chinese (including one from Hong Kong), one from Macau, two from Taiwan, five from the US and Canada, two from South America, two from Africa and one each from Saudi Arabia and Australia. A 20-member jury picked the winners, which will be exhibited at the exposition’s Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA).
“Saudi Arabia was the only Arab country from Asia to win a place in the expo,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman Aal Al-Sheikh, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs for town planning and the Kingdom’s representative to World Expo 2010.
Judges picked the tent city by taking into consideration the Kingdom’s efforts to provide modern services to about three million pilgrims who spend four days in Mina during the Haj pilgrimage every year. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and is an obligation for all able-bodied Muslims at least once during their lives if they can afford to do so. Pilgrims converge on the Grand Mosque in Makkah and follow a route around the rocky mountains of the ancient city in line with a tradition established by the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him).
The Kingdom has spent nearly SR25 billion in developing the desert valley of Mina into a modern city. Mina now has 40,000 durable fireproof tents with cooling systems, state-of-the-art communication facilities that include flyovers and tunnels, and water and electricity networks.
“For the first time, the tent city of Mina will be displayed at an international exhibition,” Aal Al-Sheikh said.
“Projects proposed had to be something physically implemented on the ground,” he said, speaking about the strict criteria to qualify for the exhibition. He added that the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is currently finalizing the design for the Kingdom’s pavilion at the show, adding that the pavilion would cover 6,000 square metres. “We have conducted a contest for designs and received 22 designs. We’ll select the best among them,” he said.
Other projects selected for the expo after a nine-month worldwide search included Brazil’s Porto Allegre, protection and use of historic canals in Venice, and Shanghai-EcoHousing. The 51 projects not selected to be displayed for six months may still be exhibited for one-day or 10-day events. Three spots will be left open for projects to be built by developing countries. All projects feature innovative solutions to urban problems and issues, such as water treatment, energy conservation, transport, social interaction, and bringing residents into closer contact with nature.
The projects illustrate innovative ways to realise “Better City, Better Life” –the exposition’s theme. “Many projects have striking features. All these cases have real models and they are successful practices. They are enlightening in terms of the influence they have on people’s lifestyles,” said Zou Hanmin, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.
“We can’t deny that European cities have better experiences in urban development, but we are seeking balance among different continents, and between developing and developed nations,” said Zhou.
The Urban Best Practices Area, which is located on a site larger than 15 hectares, offers a stage for cities around the world to propose their solutions to urban issues from different perspectives. Originally, organizers planned to choose some 30 examples for the exhibition. They later decided to increase it due to overwhelming number of proposals from around the world.
Saudi Arabia has already been awarded an international prize for best urban work at a global level, in recognition of the efforts of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in providing housing facilities and integrated services to pilgrims in Mina. The Kingdom is the first country in Asia that has won the prize among 226 contestants who provided research papers indicating their urban experiences.
Dr. Osama Fadl Al-Bar, the mayor of Makkah, said winning such a prestigious international prize furnishes tangible evidence of the Kingdom’s leading position and excellence in the area of urban and municipal projects.
“The fire-proof tent project in Mina preserves spirituality of the place,” said Bar, “yet they contain all the necessary services. This gigantic project sets an example for excellence in the area of urban projects.”
He added that the Kingdom had been awarded an international prize in civic and urban planning at the level of GCC countries for the Jamrat Bridge project last year.
Bar pointed out that this year’s prize has been given exclusively for the “White Tent City” in Mina. The SR10 billion city is the first ever in the world to be fully fire-proof, with the use of nonflammable materials in its entire construction. The combined cost of the White Tent City and Jissr Al-Jamrat exceeds SR15 billion.
Meanwhile, to make traffic flow smooth and hassle-free between Jeddah and the holy sites, an ambitious project has been taken up to connect these places with railways.
Two railroad stations will be built in Jeddah’s new King Abdul Aziz International Airport to help facilitate flow of pilgrims between Jeddah and the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, announced Abdullah Rehaimi, head of the General Authority of Civil Aviation.
“The construction of the two stations is planned with the Saudi Railway Organization to coincide with the establishment of the new airport, which is to be constructed soon,” he said.
Rehaimi was speaking to the press recently at the Haj Terminal during an inspection tour by Abdullah Al-Fayez, undersecretary at the Makkah governonate. Rehaimi said the first phase of the new airport involves constructing terminals to accommodate 30 million passengers a year.
The Jamrat Bridge project contains four levels with 24 access routes to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims each year for the stoning ritual.
“This will help ensuring maximum ease of movement for pilgrims and reduce the number of accidents,” said Fayez. These preparations are being made in the backdrop of stampedes in the past by pilgrims in Mina, near Makkah, during stoning ritual, that have killed hundreds of them.
The killer stampede occurs during the ritual of stoning the three pillars, symbolizing the Satan. Many Muslims who have performed the ritual have harrowing tales to tell about being swept away by the crowds, and being afraid to trip or fall for fear of being crushed to death.
In 2006, 345 pilgrims had died and 1,000 injured in stampede on the Jamrat Bridge.
The government immediately ordered the demolition of the bridge and a new modern, fully-equipped four-storied bridge was ordered to be built to make stoning ritual safe. The new 4.2 billion riyals Jamrat Bridge is 800-metres long and 100 metres wide. Earlier the length of the bridge was 600 metres and the width was 80 metres. And it had only two stories.
The new bridge’s one floor was opened for pilgrims in last Haj (2007), which was incident-free. Authorities are expecting that all the floors of the new bridge will be operational this year.
More than 4,000 workers are working day and night to finish the third and final storey of the Jamrat Bridge in Mina before Haj this year. Electricians are racing against time to complete fixing the desert coolers on all three stories. According to official plans each storey has been designed to absorb more than 125,000 people per hour – thus allowing more than 500,000 pilgrims to cross all four levels of the bridge every hour at the time of the stoning of the Jamrat ritual, an integral part of Haj.
The bridge consists of 11 gates linking Al-Jamrat to the mountains from all directions, in addition to escalators for elderly and infirm pilgrims. The project of the Jamrat Bridge consists of basement, ground floor plus three floors.
Al-Jawhara Street and Souq Al-Arab Street, which were passing through the north of the bridge, are now being converted into two tunnels passing through the basement of the bridge. Similarly, King Faisal Street will pass through a tunnel in south of the bridge. These three streets will be passing underneath the King Khaled Bridge.
All these tunnels are about 1.5 kilometres in length and connect the route going to the Holy Mosque in Makkah. The third tunnel on the south will end on the parking of SAPTCO (Saudi public Transport Company) on Siddique Street. All the tunnels will be 32 metres wide and will have three lanes.
The basement consists of two towers. Each tower has a 16-metre long lift to accommodate an ambulance. There is another lift to carry the workers to the basement to meet any contingency. These lifts connect all the floors to serve the pilgrims in emergency.
These two towers have also been furnished with two giant columns from the basement to the top floor to serve as helipads.
Helicopters will remain in standby position to serve the pilgrims in case of an emergency. The two towers will be in between Small Jamrat and the Middle Jamrat. Each tower will have a staircase connecting all the floors.
No vehicles will be allowed anywhere near the Jamrat area.
All the three Satan symbols have now an oval shape, 40 metres long and 16 metres wide. This is spacious enough for pelting of stone by 100,000 pilgrims per hour.
The ground floor of the Jamrat Bridge will be open from all sides providing a free movement for the pilgrims.
The first floor of the bridge has been connected with two big and wide ramps entering from Mina. It is also connected with two more ramps for the pilgrims coming from Makkah.
Stairs have been provided on both sides of the bridge to make easy entry and exit to the bridge. Arrangements have also been made to avoid any convergence of incoming and outgoing pilgrims.
The magnificent new Jamrat Bridge complex is another milestone in the planning of Mina city. Furthermore, to make pilgrims stay and movement smooth in Mina, the government has introduced luggage storage facility near the Jamrat area and other locations to avoid congestion and stampede in the stoning area.
“Past experiences have shown that some of the unfortunate incidents that took place in the stoning area were mainly due to pilgrims carrying their luggage when performing the stoning rituals,” Dr Habib M. Zein Al-Abedin, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs said, at the conclusion of a three-day workshop on “Arrangements at the Jamrat Area and Bridge during the forthcoming Haj season.”
Officials from all concerned ministries including Ministry of Interior spokesman Major General Mansour Al-Turki and foreign consultants were present at the final session. The deputy minister said “pilgrims will be strictly persued to keep their luggage in the new warehouse which is spacious enough to store all their baggage. They can carry their travel documents and other valuables in a backpack while performing the rituals on the pedestrian bridge. Officers at the warehouse will issue official receipts to the pilgrims on receiving the luggage and they will be returned according to the convenience of the pilgrims.”
Dr. Al-Abedin said the whole idea of the workshop is to ensure a smooth flow of pilgrims during their performance of rituals in the Jamrat area. Locker services are currently available in Makkah and Madinah. There are 3,000 lockers in Makkah and 2,000 in Madinah, maintained by Al-Arqam Establishment.
“As a new development, this year, we will operate a shuttle bus service to Jamrat from places such as Al-Aziziyah, Muzdalifa and Al-Muassim,” the deputy minister said, pointing out that this will ease the pilgrim traffic on the way to the stoning area.
More than 50 coaches from each bus terminal will ply to and from Jamrat Bridge. He said the authorities have also made arrangements for the pilgrims to go to Haram (Makkah) from places such as Kudai, Al-Muasim and Al-Aziziyah in Mina.
The Civil Defence authorities are taking measures to prevent floods in the holy sites, specially Mina, in case of rains during the Haj.