JEDDAH, 10 December 2007 — Efforts are under way to establish five monorails linking Makkah, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah at a total cost of SR20 billion in order to facilitate travel of more than three million Haj pilgrims between the holy sites.

According to Dr. Habeeb Zain Al-Abidine, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has given his approval to completing a feasibility study on the project.

He said the project is designed to transport five million pilgrims, adding that the ministry was conducting the study with the support of Saudi and foreign experts. He estimated the cost of a single monorail at SR4 billion.

Zain Al-Abidine called for implementing the project without further delay, adding that it would help organize the flow of pilgrims to the Jamrat and then to the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

Monorails offer quick, safe and environment-friendly transportation. “Many developing countries have overtaken us in the use of this facility,” he said. “In the first phase, it could be used for domestic pilgrims as well as those pilgrims who come by land from foreign countries.”

Monorail, which is a single rail serving as the track for a wheeled or (magnetically) levitating vehicle, has been rapidly paving its way as a modern urban transit system, providing the most-sought-after transportation solutions for a built-up congested city. They are proving to be a more effective and viable solution to rapid urbanization due to numerous advantages.

Zain Al-Abidine said the implementation of the project in the holy sites would help withdraw 25,000 buses from a total of 70,000 used by domestic pilgrims as well as pilgrims who come by land from neighboring countries. He said the system would help transport at least 500,000 pilgrims within six to eight hours.

“It will solve many problems facing the transportation of pilgrims between the holy sites as a result of overcrowding,” he added.

At present many pilgrims traveling in buses reach Arafat and Muzdalifah very late because of traffic congestion, the minister said, adding that monorails would reduce pressure on roads in the holy sites.

“Once this system is found successful, it will be applied on a wider scale in the holy sites, in Makkah and in other parts of the country,” the minister said.

The monorail system is expected to make annual revenues of SR200 million by transporting some one million Haj pilgrims at a cost of SR200 per pilgrim and an additional SR150 million from services to Umrah pilgrims charging SR50 per pilgrim, he said. According to the present study, monorails will have a station west of the stoning area in Mina in order to transport pilgrims to the second and fourth levels of the high-tech Jamrat Bridge.

The second monorail will be established two to three years after the construction of the first one, the study said. It will be established in the middle of Mina for the use of mostly Arab pilgrims. The third monorail will be set up in the north of the holy sites. Some international monorail companies have proposed the use of double-decker trains.

The government has already embarked on an SR20 billion project to link Makkah and Madinah by a railway system. The project aims to provide a safe, fast, and comfortable mode of transport for an estimated 10 million Umrah and Haj pilgrims traveling between the two holy cities and Jeddah. The project will be implemented on a design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) basis.

More than 2.5 million pilgrims are expected to perform Haj this year. According to a report issued by the Central Haj Committee, 1.2 million pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom so far for this year’s Haj, which is scheduled to start on Dec. 18.

Saudi missions abroad have issued more than 1.58 million Haj visas this year, according to Ibrahim Al-Kharashi, undersecretary for consular affairs at the Foreign Ministry. Indonesians have received the largest number of visas — 214,886 — while Argentina has received the least — 15.

The number of pilgrims coming from China has exceeded 10,000 for the first time this year, he said. The ministry has sent officials to Kyrgyztan, Benin, Macedonia, Togo, Tajikistan, Mauritius, Gambia, Comoro Islands, Mayotte Island and other remote areas in order to issue Haj visas.