Prince Mansour Bin Mesha'l Bin Abdul Aziz , Deputy Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, will launch some of Jeddah Municipality projects in the middle of next week. “Prince Mansour will initiate the Eastern Forest project and lay the foundation stone of the intersection of Prince Majed Street with Abdullah Al-Suleiman and Bakhasahb Streets,” Adel Faqeeh, Mayor of Jeddah, said here on Saturday. The Eastern Forest project contains 200,000 trees on an area of 2.5 million meters south of the sewage lake; the trees will help rid the area of insects. “The project costing SR28 million aims to develop something useful from the sewage water and to make the area green. It will also be a source of wood which will help the wood industry in the future,” Faqeeh said. Prince Mansour will lay the foundation stone of the intersection of Prince Majed Street with Abdullah Al-Suleiman and Bakhasahb Streets which will cost SR113 million. “The project will solve the traffic problems in this area and will also link the north with the south of the city,” Faqeeh said. Meanwhile, a SR150 million fine has been imposed on contractors of companies executing bridge projects in Jeddah for the delay in project completion, said the city's Deputy Mayor for Construction and Projects, Engineer Ibrahim Katabkhanah. However, Katabkhanah also noted that the networks of sewage pipelines and electricity cables at the sites of these projects have caused an additional delay in the completion of the projects. He said the existence of these networks required the redesigning of the projects. “When the new designs are completed, delay fines will be imposed. A contractor who does not complete the project within the stipulated period can be fined 10 percent of the contract's value,” he said. The deputy mayor said projects being executed in Jeddah in general are worth more than SR1.5 billion. Of this, SR690 million worth of projects are for bridges and tunnels at the city's 12 intersections. Maintenance and operation projects are worth more than SR560 million, he said. The construction of bridges and tunnels is being carried out at intersections of Prince Majed Street and Hera Street, Prince Majed Street and Al-Rawdah Street, Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Street and Umm Al-Qura Street, Prince Majed Street and Gharnatah Street, Prince Majed Street and Palestine Street, King Abdullah Road and King Abdul Aziz Road, Makkah Old Road and the streets of Al-Eskaan and Al-Jamia, Prince Sultan Street and Sari Street, Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Road and Prince Mit'eb Street, King Fahd Street and Quraish Street, Makraunah Street and Hera Street, and King Fahd Road and Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Street. Katabkhanah said rainwater drainage projects worth SR459 million are underway. Moreover, projects worth SR284 million for pavements and a SR24 million Eastern Forest project are in the pipeline. He said SR40 million have been allocated for increasing the efficiency of the sewage water processing station in Wadi Asqala'a.
