A medical city project worth over one billion riyals has been delayed for almost three years due to a failure to provide the necessary land after plots granted to Health Affairs by the region's mayoralty were found to be owned by members of the public. The chairman of the Municipal Council in Abha said that Health Affairs had now been allocated alternative land and that the council was working with the Residents Committee to approach Health Affairs on the delay in the project for which over one billion riyals was designated. Director of Asir Health Affairs Abdullah Bin Muhammad Al-Wad'ee said that land of more than 800,000 sq m at King Abdullah Road had been granted to the Ministry of Health and would host part of the medical city - namely the 500-bed Abha Specialist Hospital – at a cost of SR350 million. Other parts of the medical city, Al-Wad'ee said, would be completed in stages.
