The Saudi government has approved plans for a new city to be built at an investment of $3 billion featuring more than 10,000 homes, a culture and heritage tourist centre, technology and industry parks, a university and an airport at Taif, said a report.

The project will come up over a 1,250-sq-km area on a site in the northeastern part of the existing city of Taif, with the tourist centre being an expansion of the popular Souq Okaz destination, reported Arab News.

An infrastructure contract has already been signed for the first phase of a three-stage project to build a residential suburb of more than 10,000 homes.

The $160-million development, which will spread over 12 million sq m area, is the biggest in the Makkah region, stated the report.

The General Authority for Civil Aviation has signed a contract to develop and operate the new Taif International Airport with a group of companies including Asiad, the Contractors Association Company and Munich Airports Company.

The airport will be spread over a 48 million-sq-m area about 40 km from Taif and 117 km from Makkah. It will cost $800 million and is expected to be operational by 2020.

The new Souk Okaz City, in addition to its culture and heritage tourist attractions, will also have 1,250 hotel rooms and 130 new homes. It is being supervised by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, with participation from the private sector, and will cost almost $1 billion, reported Arab News.

The tourism project will create 4,400 jobs, is expected to attract more than 260,000 visitors a year and will contribute about $80 million a year to the the kingdom’s GDP.

A consortium of global companies has been selected to design a business park called the Oasis of Technology, a joint venture between King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and the Morganti Group, said the report.

The 35-million-sq-m site will accommodate projects to assemble and manufacture Antonov aircraft, make solar panels and develop solar energy, it added.