Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — After the arrival of the first batch of 235 Indian pilgrims on an Air India flight to Madinah on Saturday, the Consulate General of India, in conjunction with the Haj Committee of India (HCOI), are providing the final touches to its arrangements for Haj 2013. Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao and Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai were in Madinah to receive the pilgrims. A total number of 1,36,020 pilgrims would be arriving from India, out of which 1,21,420 pilgrims would be arriving through the HCOI and 14,600 pilgrims would come through 265 private tour operators. About 60,800 pilgrims would be landing at Madinah and after spending eight days at the Prophet's Mosque would proceed to Makkah. The first flight to Jeddah from India would arrive on Sept. 16 carrying pilgrims from Ranchi. About 61,000 pilgrims would be landing in Jeddah and would proceed to Makkah to perform Haj. The consulate has already rented 434 buildings in Makkah to accommodate the pilgrims. Special efforts have been made to hire better quality buildings and also to reduce the number of buildings from previous years. In Madinah, 10 housing groups have been entrusted in providing accommodation for pilgrims on their arrival. All arrangements to receive the pilgrims at Madinah airport and Jeddah Haj Terminal have been made, and, for the first time, the Consulate General of India would also be setting up an office at Madinah Haj Terminal. The other arrangements, including setting up of 13 branch offices in Makkah and five branch offices in Aziziyah, two hospitals in Makkah with 11 branch dispensaries and a main hospital in Madinah with 5 branch dispensaries, have been completed. The HCOI pilgrims would be coming from 21 embarkation points in India of which the Saudi Arabian Airlines would be operating from nine stations carrying 74,090 pilgrims and Air India would be operating from 12 stations carrying 47,330 pilgrims. The Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, has deputed 546 people, including six coordinators, 145 doctors and 150 paramedical staff along with assistant Haj officers and Haj guides to help the pilgrims. All pilgrims will be welcomed at their accommodations in Makkah and Madinah with a packet of dates. They will be provided like last year cotton bed sheets, pillow covers, a bucket, mugs and disinfectants. Online complaint management system, which was instituted in Haj 2012 wherein pilgrims could file their complaints, would be continued during this Haj. Mobile SIM cards with a talk time of SR5 is being provided to all the pilgrims with numbers of key Haj officials and the emergency numbers in Saudi Arabia. Sacrifice (Adahi) coupons from the Islamic Development Bank will be available in all the branch offices in Makkah and Madinah. The city check-in of baggage of pilgrims both in Makkah and Madinah during the return phase would be continued and baggage from the pilgrims would be collected in advance from their buildings. A 10-liter can of Zamzam would be supplied directly to the pilgrims at the respective disembarkation points in India. For the transport of pilgrims from Aziziyah to the Grand Mosque, arrangements have already been made. The transportation contractor has assured deployment of an adequate number of buses. A request has been made to the Haj Ministry to provide train tickets for all the Haj Committee of India pilgrims. Details of all the pilgrims, accommodation, their contact numbers and movement dates would be available on the website www.cgijeddah.com.
