Grand Mosque of West Sumatra 3.75

Grand Mosque of West Sumatra is a mosque in Padang, Indonesia. As of 2015, the mosque is still under construction. At its completion, it will become the largest mosque in West Sumatra, and the second largest mosque in Sumatra. It is located in Padang Utara Subdistrict, Padang, West Sumatra. The Grand Mosque of West Sumatra is located within a complex of 40,343 square meter on the intersection of Jalan Khatib Sulaiman and Jalan Ahmad Dahlan.ConstructionThe first stone of the construction was laid on December 21, 2007, inaugurated by the Governor of West Sumatra Province Gamawan Fauzi. Construction officially started in 2008 and as of November 2015 it is still under construction.Construction takes a long time because of budget issue. Apart from relying on the West Sumatra's regional government budget, other strategies were used to collect funding, such as relying on donation from the people, from the private sectors, as well as from foreign governments. In 2009 The government of Saudi Arabia funded 50 million US dollar for the construction of the mosque, however this came at the same time as the 2009 West Sumatra earthquakes; so the funding was relocated for rehabilitation of the earthquake victims and reconstruction process of West Sumatra instead. In 2014, the Turkish government donated rugs for the mosque.The first time prayer was held in the mosque is on February 7, 2014 for a Friday prayer. The amount of congregation is limited during this period because the plumbing system had not been fully functional.ArchitectureThe mosque was designed by local architect Rizal Muslimin, selected as the winner of the 2007 competition for a new mosque in West Sumatra which. The competition was attended by 323 participants from around the world.