JEDDAH, 25 January -- A Saudi Arabian Airlines plane carrying nearly 300 pilgrims from the southern state of Kerala will be met at the Jeddah airport tomorrow by senior Indian diplomats, honoring a half-century old tradition of receiving the first batch of Haj pilgrims. The first Haj flight of Air-India arrives the following day from Bangalore.
Nearly 120,000 Indians will perform pilgrimage this year, 72,000 via the Central Haj Committee traveling on government charters. The rest will use private operators.
In response to India's requests, Saudi authorities have increased the number of Muallims from 11 to 16 for better coordination and care of pilgrims.
Indian Consul General Syed Akbaruddin has said that only new buildings have been hired for pilgrims and all are within the 1,000-meter perimeter of the Grand Mosque. Ninety-five percent of the building are equipped ]with lifts -- up from 47 percent last year. He said the only difference between the three categories of accommodation was distance from the Haram. Moreover, a reduced number of buildings -- 301 compared to last year's 447 -- allows more effective administration.
In Madinah, four contractors will provide non-categorized accommodation and all will fall within 750 meters of the Haram Sharif, he added.
Special attention has been given to the proper functioning of the air-charter operation. The relationship with Saudia has been revived and will now carry 20,500 pilgrims. For the first time, 14,000 pilgrims will directly depart from Madinah. A new company has been appointed as the ground handling agent to provide better service as the previous company failed to provide adequate service, the consul general said.
He added that provision has been made to provide remote-check-in facility at the Haj terminal and computerized reservation terminals introduced by Air-India in Makkah and Madinah will be providing information to the pilgrims on the return phase. Both are designed to reduce congestion and facilitate smooth flow of the pilgrims.
The government is sending 370 administrative and medical personnel to assist the Haj pilgrims. An equal number of support staff is locally recruited. Medicines worth about 7 million rupees will be available and the capacity of a 10-bed hospital in Makkah has been enhanced to 15, he added.
Besides the main Haj office, nine branch offices, two Pilgrims Information Centers, control room, main dispensary, nine branch dispensaries, medical laboratory, lost baggage cell, complaints cell, a mobile doctor team, building visiting teams, ambulance services, Madinah Movement Cell will be at the disposal of the pilgrims, the consul general concluded.
