Jeddah slum residents notified of planned removal
Demolition is part of large-scale redevelopment plan for port city
Cairo: A Saudi committee in charge of developing slum areas in the Red Sea city of Jeddah started notifying residents in Al Montazahat district of planned removal as part of a mass-scale renovation scheme, Saudi media reported.
The committee announced going ahead with a timetable set to raze 32 slum districts in the city.
The panel said it will complete the notification work and disconnecting services in the remaining districts in the run-up to the implementation of an executive scheme that was earlier announced.
Earlier this month Jeddah authorities quashed rumours that demolition of remaining slums in Jeddah will be postponed.
Twenty-eight such districts in the city have been razed and four others remain.
Slum demolitions recently resumed in Jeddah after they were put on hold during the past Islamic holy month of Ramadan that ended in early Ramadan.
Last February, authorities resumed a phased plan to develop a densely slum area in the holy city of Mecca, of which Jeddah is administratively part, with the aim of eliminating visual disfigurement of the city known as the Holy Capital of the kingdom.
The removal of Al Nakasa, located around 1,500 metres from the Grand Mosque, was suspended for more than a year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.