SAUDI ARABIA is planning to build a new city consisting of 45 districts for 600,000 people near Makkah on the Makkah-Jeddah Highway, a report said.

The residential and administrative city called Makkah Gate, the masterplan of which was approved last month, will be developed under a public-private partnership, the Arab News said.

Spanning an area of 83 million sq m, the project will include educational institutions, government offices, shopping centres, housing units and a national park, Makkah mayor Osama Al Bar was quoted as saying.

Saudi Arabia has been creating several new cities across the country, particularly near Makkah and Madinah, to cater to a growing population.

In July, plans for a pilgrim city for 200,000 Muslims who travel to Madinah  were announced. The state-of-the-art city would cover 1.6 million sq m and include hotels, furnished apartments, a railway and bus station, government offices and a 400-bed hospital.

Construction of a mega city in Rabigh, 150 km north of Jeddah, is due to begin shortly. The Indian developer in charge of the project, Gammon Group, said it was worth SR10.9 billion ($2.9 billion) and would include a state-of-the-art hospital, a petrochemical plant, other industrial areas, schools, mosques and residential villas and cover 20 million sq m of land.