JEDDAH, 10 August — Ten storied “Gulistan”, is now the Indian Haj office building in Makkah, which Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad formally opened on Wednesday. The new location is at Jabal-e-Kabah Street, about 400 meters from the Holy Harem. Local officials of the Tawafa organizations were among those present.
Announcing this at a press conference at Trident Jeddah yesterday, he disclosed that a Haj delegation would arrive from New Delhi on Aug. 22 to meet Haj Minister Iyad Madani and take a first hand account of the preparations for this year’s annual pilgrimage. Asked whether Federal Minister of State for Commerce & Haj Omar Abdullah will lead the delegation, he remarked: “Possibly, anyway, the composition of the team will be known next week.”
Ahmad, who was accompanied by Consul General Syed Akbaruddin, Haj Consul Anwar Haleem and Zikrur Rahman, first secretary at the Embassy of India in Riyadh, added that the new building had been rented after a thorough search.
“It has a bigger reception area, an independent spacious hall for housing lost pilgrims, a spacious office space, an outpatient department and a 15-bed primary health care center. Most of these features were lacking in the old building rented 14 years ago,” he said.
Aside from the new central office, which also features a computerized reservation terminal (CRT) to assist pilgrims in their air transport arrangements, nine other offices, all fully computerized, will be spread across the holy city to help the pilgrims access all information about accommodation and flights.
“From the next Haj, every pilgrim will be entitled for three square meter space instead of 2.5 square meter earlier. Only new buildings with lift facilities and within a distance of a kilometer from the Holy Harem will be hired. “This time all the 72,000 pilgrims coming through the Central Haj Committee will be provided accommodation in new buildings as against 90 percent housed in such buildings last year. Already 10,000 units had been finalized”, he added.
Saudi Arabian Airlines will transport 30,500 pilgrims from three Indian embarkation points, 10,000 more than last year, while Air-India will ferry the rest from eight other points.
