Expatriates who registered their names online for the much publicized low cost Haj say their dreams have been shattered. Some of them headed for Makkah after registering themselves on the Ministry of Haj’s portal for low cost pilgrimage. On Tuesday, they complained that the service offered to them is substandard and had to experience difficulties while traveling to the holy city.

Syed Khaja Afzal, an Indian expatriate working in Riyadh who made his registration through the Haj Ministry’s online portal, said: “It was a nightmare to handle local Haj operators in Riyadh; we had to visit our Haj operator several times till the eleventh hour to finalize our Haj plan.”

According to him, the operator did not respond to any of the inquiries for several days. He finally told them to check with the ministry and not with him.

“The Haj operator, who was assigned to us after our online registration, advised us to visit him near Panda Market at Wazarat district in Riyadh at 6 a.m. on Tuesday to board a bus (No. 32) for Makkah. We reached there in time, but there was none to attend to our inquiries,” he said.

“Finally, the bus, a 2004 model, started after 1 p.m. in which mostly Arabs and other expatriates traveled, but the bus condition was very bad. In fact, the 2004 model vehicles are officially not allowed to carry pilgrims.”

He accused the Haj operators of resorting to malpractices in the case of online pilgrims, whereas they render prompt service to general category pilgrims.

Mohammed Imran, a Pakistani expatriate working with Riyadh Cement Company, echoed a similar viewpoint and said: “If this is the state of affairs at the beginning of our journey for the pilgrimage, then what about our situation in Mina.”

However, Syed ur Rahman, a Pakistani expatriate working in an industrial area of Dammam, who also registered himself online, said: “We didn’t encounter any problem so far with the Haj operator; we are scheduled to leave from Dammam on Wednesday morning. Only then we will be able to speak about the service.”

The Haj Ministry has allowed 20,500 pilgrims to book themselves online and the remaining 20,500 slots will be filled by domestic Haj companies directly. A total of 41,000 pilgrims are being covered under the low cost Haj program.