24 govt departments shift headquarters out of Mina

By Badea Abu Al-Naja MAKKAH — As many as 24 government departments, which are not directly involved in the Haj services, have shifted their main offices out of Mina providing spaces that can accommodate more than 300,000 pilgrims. According to a statement by the Makkah Governorate on Tuesday, the departments have moved to a special government-building complex near Muzdalifah. The complex was built by the Finance Ministry in coordination with the Governorate according to the latest international standards. When the project was first launched, Makkah Emir Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who is the chairman of the Central Haj Committee, directed that the buildings should be according to the modern specifications and provided with the state-of-the-art technology. The departments started shifting to the new location about two years ago and so far 24 of them have moved out of Mina providing empty spaces of about 185,000 square meters, which can accommodate about 300,000 pilgrims. The Governorate said the space vacated by the government departments represented about 23 percent of Mina's total area. The new government complex has been built on an area of more than a million square meters and can accommodate more than 10,000 employees. It consists of 13 buildings with 13 entrances including 3,200 offices and residential units. It has a water reservoir with a capacity of 36,000 cubic meters that can provide water to the inhabitants for 15 days. It also has spacious warehouses, an aircraft field and other utilities.