RIYADH — The Ministry of Interior is completing its preparations to implement the Makkah Route Initiative for selected pilgrims from seven countries. The initiative comes within the Doyof Al-Rahman Program, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 executive programs. Saudi Arabia is implementing this initiative for the sixth year since its launching in 2017. The pilgrims under this initiative will depart for Saudi Arabia from 11 airports of seven countries. Pilgrims from Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh were beneficiaries of this initiative earlier while Turkey and Côte d'Ivoire started benefiting from it after the last Hajj. A total of 617,756 pilgrims from these countries have so far benefited from the initiative. The Makkah Route Initiative aims to provide high-quality transportation services for the guests of God from their respective countries. It aims to streamline the travel procedures in a much simplified and easier way. The initiative enables pilgrims to complete their immigration procedures at their country of departure, making it possible to bypass long immigration and customs procedures while arriving in Saudi Arabia. It starts with issuing the visa electronically and taking the biometrics, and then passing through the complete passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after verifying the availability of health requirements. Also, the procedures include coding and sorting pilgrims' luggage to send to their place of residence in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. Upon their arrival, the pilgrims move directly to buses to take them to their places of residence either in Makkah or Madinah, with designated paths, while the service agencies deliver their luggage to their place of residence. The ministry is implementing the initiative in cooperation with the ministries of foreign affairs, health, and Hajj and Umrah, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the General Directorate of Passports, and Elm Company.
