JEDDAH — The construction agency at Jeddah Municipality approved 8,738 construction licenses, consisting of 7,523 for housing units and the remaining 1,215 for commercial units. These licenses will lead to the provision of 48,267 housing and commercial units. The municipality has also approved 16 development projects, one of which is an urban development scheme. The Deputy Mayor for Construction, Abdullateef Al-Harthi, said the municipality has finalized five technical projects to streamline the system of issuing construction licenses for both building and major projects. These projects include a licensing system for construction; maintenance and operation systems; reviewing and designing geographical data; developing the geographical licensing process for construction; and reviewing and building up data for geographical licensing (second phase). Each of the above systems, said Al-Harthi, would undergo continuous development to ensure the efficiency and advancement of the issuance system for licenses of different kinds. Last year, the municipality has also approved 10 land plots covering a total area of 673.6 million sq. meters. A total of 3,329 housing units and 325 commercial units will be built on the land. The municipality also approved 70 licenses on this area to construct mosques, schools and government departments. The area is expected to serve a population of over 136,000.
