Marrakech Halts Construction Near Koutoubia Amid Urban Planning Probe

The present case is another one that sticks to the city of Marrakech, known for its countless infractions of the urban planning code and illegal transfers of state-owned land, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, specifying that it is the construction of a kissaria on a historic site, with the complicity of elected officials and local authorities, in violation of the urban planning law.

A situation that forced the Wali of the Marrakech region, Karim Kassi-Lahlou, to go to the site, at the head of an expanded commission, to order the stoppage of this two-story underground construction site, erected near the Koutoubia, threatening this famous mosque and other neighboring historic monuments in the ochre city, declared a World Heritage Site.

A judicial investigation has been initiated by the public prosecutor’s office and several elected officials and municipal officials have been summoned, particularly in the urban planning department, to determine the responsibilities of each, in the issuance of this authorization.

It should be recalled that if the project to build this kissaria dates back to 2013, it has always been blocked at the level of the urban planning department, notes the same source.