King Abdullah Khadmain-i-Haramain-Sharifain laid the foundation stone for the largest expansion of the Prophet?s Mosque. The new project will increase the mosque?s capacity to more than two million worshipers.
The new expansion project, ordered by King Abdullah, would be carried out in three phases. The first phase will increase its capacity to more than 800,000 worshippers while the second and third phases will give room for more than a million worshippers, media reports said.
?Altogether the new expansion will create an additional space for 1.2 million worshippers by 2040,? Al-Madinah Arabic daily reported, quoting informed sources.
A number of hotels and buildings in the area would be demolished to create enough space for implementing the huge expansion project. The newspaper put the total amount to be paid to property owners in compensation at SR 25 billion.
In order to carry out the expansion, the Madinah Development Authority will have to remove 23 hotels from the central area around the mosque, one report said, adding that the removal of those hotels would create a shortage of 4,760 rooms to accommodate those who visit the mosque.
The MDA has played down the effect of losing such a large number of rooms, saying 21 new hotel projects would be completed this year to make up for the shortfall.
The expansion project in brief:
1- The project will be implemented in one phase (3 years starts from Muharram 1434 / December 2012).
2- The expansion will add 1,300,000 m^2 to the existing 400,000 m^2 (or around 2 million worshipers)
3- The project will be associated with heavy works to upgrade and modernize the central Madina area.
current view
after expansion ..
This is how the prophet mosque will look after the expansion ...