Algiers Grand Mosque: Works reach 25% rate

The rate of Algiers Grand Mosque construction works reached 25%, two years after their beginning in the commune of Mohammedia, east of Algiers), officials of the project said Tuesday. The Mosque is expected to be complete by September 2015. "The overall progress rate (the Grand Mosque of Algiers) is 25%," the project managers told Minister of Religious Affairs and Waqf, Bouabdallah Ghlamallah who inspected the construction site with Wali of Algiers, Abdelkader Zoukh. Priority is given to the construction of six main buildings out of the twelve that will make up the project, namely the prayer hall with a capacity 126,000 places, the minaret (up nearly 300m), the esplanade, cultural center, library and Dar-El-qoraan (House of the Quran), completed between 40 and 90%, they said. The launching of other buildings (administration, office for civil protection, police and technical plants) require the relocation of the base de vie of the company in charge of the works and the recovery of premises of the National Institute of Computer Science, the same source said. The pace of the Grand Mosque construction will be accelerated once parts of the project manufactured abroad acquired to allow completion within the contractual deadline in September 2015.