Cairo: Municipal authorities in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca will give owners of restaurants and other food facilities a grace period to replace outer chimneys with electric air purifiers in a step aimed to curb fumes and eliminate visual disfigurement, Saudi media reported.

To this end, deputy head of the Mecca Municipality Abdullah bin Khamis this week met with a group of manufacturers and suppliers of electric air purifiers fitted with high-efficiency filters to dispose of odours and fumes.

Mecca is known as the Holy Capital of Saudi Arabia as it is home to the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site.

Bin Khamis said the city’s municipality is considering giving owners of food establishments, including restaurants and cooking facilities, a grace period for installing these devices.

“By doing this, the Municipality of the Holy Capital is seeking to eliminate the phenomenon of the visual disfigurement caused by these chimneys, which also do not help lessen smokes and odours emanating from restaurants and kitchens,” he said without specifying the deadline.

Millions of Muslims from around the world flock to Mecca to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage or lesser pilgrimage known as Umrah.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has unveiled a series of pro-environment measures also aimed to address climate change.

In 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman launched the Saudi Green Initiative, an effort aimed at planting 10 million trees across the kingdom, increasing the protected zones to 30 per cent of the country’s overall area and reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tons annually by the year 2030.