To ensure quality service to the worshippers and visitors of the Holy Mosque, Saudi Arabia has installed the largest cooling plant in the world within the mosque. Using the latest technologies, the Kingdom’s efforts are in the way to allow pilgrims to perform their rituals in cool and clean air rather than bearing the tormenting heat.
Ultraviolet light is used to purify air within Al-Haram by the General Presidency for the Affairs, which oversees the management of the Two Holy Mosques. Through this technology, the filtration process is done 9 times in a day following which, the air is released into the mosque, as per the Saudi Gazette’s report.
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With this filtration method, air gets cleaned with 100% purity and freshness. It is carried out in 3 stages- moving air into filters using fans, capturing pollutants and particles and then pushing back clean air into space.
There are two cooling stations installed inside the Grand Mosque that are the largest in the world of their kind, the director of operation and maintenance administration of the presidency, Mohsen Al-Salami said. One of them is the Ajyad station- this produces 35,300 refrigeration tonnes of air out of which 24,500 refrigeration tonnes are utilized and the rest remains. The second is the newly installed central station that owns a capacity of whopping 120,000 refrigeration tonnes.
As of now, the central station caters to the Third Saudi Expansion and half of Mas’a, which is the area for the Sa’i ritual (performed between Safa and Marwa). In the future, the same station will cater to Grand Mosque, all its facilities included.
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To avoid pilgrims from bearing the lack of cool and clean air due to mishaps- be it malfunctions, disturbances, etc), the presidency arranges for backup cooling stations apart from the general stations. These backup ones ensure the temperatures set are preserved and the purity of air inside the grand Mosque doesn’t deteriorate, Al-Salami said. However, highly qualified and experienced technicians and engineers regularly check the air cooling systems to ensure their correct functioning, he added.
