Jamia Omar Mosque’s construction to resume soon

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Construction work will be resumed soon after long years to complete the grand mosque named after Hazrat Omar bin Khetab (RWA) in the capital of southern Kandahar province.

The mosque “Jamia Omar” famously known as “Omar Bin Khetab Grand Mosque” was founded during the Taliban regime but was left incomplete after the fall of the Taliban.

However, in 2011 construction was resumed and the mosque was  80 percent completed in one year.

On Tuesday (Feb 6), a delegation from capital Kabul arrived in Kandahar City to assess the mosque before once again resuming construction work to complete the remaining 20 percent part.

Kandahar Governor Zalmai Wesa told Pajhwok Afghan News that construction for the 20 percent incomplete part of the mosque would begin soon after the delegation’s assessment.

He said 80 percent work on the mosque had been completed in the past years but the work had to be suspended due to a lack of budget and some technical problems.

Wesa said the governor’s house had discussed the mosque project with the municipality and it was assured work on the incomplete part of the mosque would be started soon.

The governor said building for a Darululum (seminary) and a market were also part of the mosque project, but for now only the mosque part would be constructed.

The first part of the mosque construction cost $3.5 million paid by former president Hamid Karzai, the Kandahar municipality and a number of traders of the province.

According to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Omar bin Khetab Grand Mosque is designed in three storeys on 1.5 acres of land. The total cost is estimated at $18 million funded by the Kandahar municipality, traders and the government.

The mosque has special worship areas for both men and women and would contain 150 bathrooms, four minarets, a tomb built of copper, a marbled ground and surrounding walls, the Internet and other modern facilities.

The mosque is constructed in an area where the only cinema of Kandahar was situated which was torched by Mujahideen during the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan.

mds/ma

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