Announcing this news, Tavakoli Zadeh said, “Enjoying new and modern technology and facilities, new banquet hall, having five floors, will be opened soon to give pilgrims the opportunity of having blessed food of Hazrat Reza (A.S.) while the capacity of old banquet hall was just 1600 people”.
Referring to some of the problems at the old banquet hall, he reminded, “Existence of such a place at thecenter of Razavi Shrine had some serious problems. Being located in the main route of the pilgrims and creating a kind of disorder in entering Inqelab and Azadi Courtyards, kitchens and warehouses’ lack of access to the underpass ring and as a result compulsory movements of heavy vehicles in the shrine’s courtyards, and closeness to the sacred places and spreading smell of food in Holy Shrine’s different courtyards and porticos are some of these problems”.
He said that development of old hall had become impossible as a result of limitations in its surrounding buildings and also its closeness to the pilgrimage sections of the Holy Shrine. Tavakoli Zadeh also mentioned, “Oldness of the building, facilities and equipment in the old hall had led to a difficulty in giving appropriate service to the Razavi pilgrims. All the mentioned problems caused Astan Quds Razavi to come to the conclusion of changing banquet hall’s place from the center to the surrounding parts of the complex.
He added, “In line with this conclusion, construction of a new banquet hall equipped with modern facilities, five floors and a capacity to host ten thousand guests in each mealtime was started. Construction of the new building was started in the western edge of the complex in 1392/ 2013 and it can be run in 1395/ 2017, thanks to lots of endeavors”.
Referring to various modern facilities of the new banquet hall, Astan Quds Razavi’s Director of Public Relations and Media Affairs stressed, “A modern cold store, a very unique and equipped kitchen, an advanced utilities with an updated technology, and a beautiful space enjoying pure Islamic-Iranian architecture are some most important features of new banquet hall of Imam Ali Ibn al-Musa al-Reza (A.S.) which starts its work and serves gracious Imam’s (A.S.) guests in 1396/ 2017”.
At the end, Tavakoli Zadeh also said that in addition to enjoy the latest technology, some measures have been taken for preserving real taste in the blessed food as it is cooked in traditional methods. He also asserted, “New banquet hall has been constructed in a 2300-square-meter land and its total infrastructure is 11840 square meters”.
