Within the events inaugurating the Imam Al-Hadi (a.s.) Hospitality Complex of the Abbasid Holy Shrine, held on the morning of Saturday 23 Jumada al-Thani 1437 (2 April 2016) in the presence of senior figures of Karbala province, representatives of the Shi'a Endowment, the holy shrines of Najaf, Kadhimiya and the military shrine, the Governor of Karbala, the Provincial Council president, the Karbala police director, and the Secretary-General of the holy Husaynian Shrine Sheikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbalai and the Secretary-General of the Abbasid Holy Shrine Sayyid Muhammad al-Ashiqar — a speech was delivered by the juristic trustee of the Abbasid Holy Shrine, His Eminence Sayyid Ahmed al-Safi, who said:
“The truth is that the holy city of Karbala still suffers congestion after congestion, and both holy shrines are keen — to the extent of their religious and moral duty of stewardship — to prepare whatever they can as a means, so that the visitor finds ease and comfort. Organising city management is truly not easy; we suffer today from an urban-planning crisis even after the basic design of the province was approved. Frankly, we find no earnest steps due to the country's general situation, which made genuine reconstruction and changing the map to fit the demands of this time — while preserving the city's identity — no simple task but a dream. We ask God Almighty to show us this dream soon.”
This was followed by a speech from the party directly supervising the design and implementation of the project — the Engineering Projects Department of the Abbasid Holy Shrine — delivered by its chief, Engineer Dhiya Majeed al-Saigh, who stated: “A new day, and one more in the achievements of the honoured Shi'a Endowment Directorate and the holy shrines. Tomorrow soon we will surpass 150 completed projects; yesterday we celebrated the completion of the work on the holy grille of Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas (a.s.), carried out by a faithful group of the shrine's own people.”
Then the managing director of the executing company — Tiba Karbala — Engineer Kazim Abd al-Hussein al-Fattlawi, delivered a speech in which he said: “The Imam Ali al-Hadi (a.s.) Hospitality Complex is one of the service projects of the Shi'a Endowment Directorate and the Abbasid Holy Shrine that our company sought to implement, to serve the visitors and guests of Abu Abdullah al-Hussein and his brother Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas (a.s.), as an addition to the other projects that the Secretariat-General of the Abbasid Holy Shrine is keen to deliver in service of the visitors of the holy city of Karbala. The company, under the shrine's guidance, implemented this project through its own engineering and technical cadres and exclusively Iraqi labour, to support and develop this social segment — positively reflecting on the Iraqi labour market and contributing, at least partly, to solving unemployment. Our company also worked with the projects department to import high-efficiency equipment and systems from the best global sources, keeping pace with technical and scientific development while preserving the Karbala architectural style.”
