JEDDAH: Saudi transport companies have achieved self-sufficiency for the first time in more than a decade and will not rent coaches from neighboring countries for the transportation of pilgrims this season.
For more than a decade, Saudi companies have rented buses from neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. But according to Ali Hassan Nagoor, head of the National Committee for Land Transport in both the Saudi Council of Chambers and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, this will be the first year since the late 1990s where buses will not have to be rented from outside.
“This is the first Haj season (in over 10 years) in which we will achieve self-sufficiency in the area of providing inter-city transport for the guests of God,” said Nagoor, who is also the CEO of Al-Jazeera Haj Transport Company.
He told Arab News that the General Cars Syndicate, which is overseeing Haj transport companies, used to rent between 4,000 to 5,000 buses from neighboring countries each year, which constitutes up to 20 percent of the total number of buses operating during the Haj season.
Nagoor said the Haj fleet this year increased to 20,000 vehicles. He added that his own company has invested about SR350 million in adding new vehicles to its fleet.
Nagoor assured that the bus fare for pilgrims, which has not been revised for more than 25 years, would remain unchanged despite the increase in costs of other services such as accommodation, food, operation, maintenance and salaries. “The air fares have gone up by more than 500 percent during the past 25 years while the fares of Haj transport remained static,” he said.
