The Mayor of Jeddah, Adel Fakeih, announced Wednesday a decision to create a new municipality exclusively to oversee the city's historic area of Al-Balad. According to Sami Nawar, the head of culture and tourism at Jeddah Municipality, the Historic District Municipality's jurisdiction will cover the areas of Harat Al-Madhloum, Harat Al-Sham and Harat Al-Bahr. “The municipality will be tasked with drawing up development plans for the district and directly supervising the repair, renovation and preservation of historic buildings, as well following and coordinating infrastructure projects in the area and improving social and cultural activities,” Nawar said. The body, which will also be responsible for issuing commercial licenses in the zone and monitoring services, will be composed of three administrations encompassing services, monitoring, and project coordination. Its head office will be located behind the historic Naseef House. “The move comes in response to the wishes of authorities to save Jeddah's historic area and register it on UNESCO's World Heritage List,” Nawar said. “We are all determined to make that happen and turn the historic area into a tourist attraction.”
