By IINA,
Makkah : The tent city of Mina is one of the 55 city projects that have been selected from 226 nominations from across the world for exhibition at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai. A 20-member jury picked the winners to be exhibited at the exposition’s Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA). “Saudi Arabia was the only Asian Arab country to win a place in the expo,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Asheikh, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs for town planning and the Kingdom’s representative to World Expo 2010. Judges picked the tent city by taking into consideration the Kingdom’s efforts to provide modern services to nearly three million pilgrims who spend four days in Mina during the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia has spent nearly SR25 billion in developing the desert valley of Mina into a modern city. Mina now has 40,000 durable fireproof tents with cooling systems, state-of-the-art communication facilities that include flyovers and tunnels, and water and electricity networks.
“For the first time, the tent city of Mina will be displayed at an international exhibition,” Al Asheikh said. “Projects proposed had to be something that had been physically implemented on the ground,” he said, speaking about the strict criteria to qualify for the exhibition.
He added that the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is currently finalizing the design for the Kingdom’s pavilion at the show, adding that the pavilion would cover 6,000 square meters. “We have conducted a contest for designs and received 22 entries. We’ll choose the best among them,” Al Asheikh said.