CAIRO: In a move to boost Prophet Mohamed's mosque in the Saudi Arabia holy city of Medina, the government is renovating the mosque ahead of the month of Ramadan in preparation for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. According to the government, the renovations will boost capacity of those able to pray at one time in the mosque to 1.6 million persons. King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz has already approved the expansion plan, Ebrahim Al Assaf, the finance minister, told the Saudi News Agency. “The new expansion of the Prophet's Mosque is part of King Abdullah's efforts in the service of Islam and Muslims, the latest of which was the unprecedented expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah," he said. The expansion of the Prophet's Mosque will allow pilgrims and visitors to pray comfortably in the mosque and the surrounding areas, he said. The expansion project will be implemented in three phases, the government said. “The first phase will accommodate more than 800,000 worshipers while the second and third will accommodate an equal number of worshipers bringing the total number of people the mosque can accommodate to more than 1.6 million at any given time," he said, quoted by local daily Arab News. The expansion of the Prophet's Mosque will complete the other projects that the king has ordered for the welfare and comfort of pilgrims and visitors, he said, referring to the ongoing expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, the expansion of the Massa (pathway between Safa and Marwa), the enlargement of the area of the Jamarat bridge, the Makkah Development Plan, the Haramain Express Train, the Makkah Gate and the new King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.
