The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet's session at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Monday afternoon. The Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi said in a statement to Saudi Press Agency following the session that the Cabinet prayed to Allah Almighty to grant the best reward to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for his care for pilgrims, Umrah performers, and visitors and his continuing directives for the improvement of the State's services provided to them, stressing that the King's inspection of the third phase of the project for increasing the accommodation capacity of the circumambulation track and his briefing on plans and illustrations showing the phases of the implementation of the expansion project of the Grand Mosque, and what has been achieved so far, and what it will achieve by increasing the accommodation capacity of circumambulators, pilgrims, Umrah performers, visitors, facilities and services that will be available to them after the completion of the expansion, whereas the total construction area of the Mosque, the circumambulation track, yards, bridges and building services after the expansion is estimated at about one million, four hundred and seventy thousand square meters; the total number of worshipers reaches up to about one million, eight hundred and fifty thousand worshipers; and the capacity of circumambulation track increases to one hundred and seven thousand circumambulators per hour. The Cabinet emphasized that this embodies the King's keenness on the achievement of everything that facilitates the performance of rituals for the visitors of the Grand Mosque, appreciating his directives to exploit all potentials and requirements needed by the Grand Mosque and its expansion project. The Minister noted that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques expressed his thanks to the people of Makkah region for their expressions of the warm welcome during the pledge of allegiance ceremony in celebration of assuming the reins of power and in appreciation and recognition of his efforts towards the religion, homeland and citizens. --More 16:32 LOCAL TIME 13:32 GMT تغريد
