Road to Makkah initiative launched for five countries including Pakistan

The Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia has launched the 'Road to Makkah' initiative for year 2022 to facilitate Hajj pilgrims belonging to Pakistan and five other countries after much anticipation.

The initiative that also includes Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco and Bangladesh this year was first launched in 2019, PTV World reported.

In an official statement, the Saudi ministry said that the initiative aimed to receive the pilgrims and complete their procedures from their countries with ease.

It further stated that in a meeting on Hajj 2022 under the project, Minister for Religious Affairs Mufti Abdul Shakoor and Saudi Arabia Ambassador Nawaf bin Saeed al-Maliki expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made for the pilgrims at Islamabad Airport.

Also read: Saudi delegation visits IIA to review Hajj arrangements

The state-run channel quoted the Saudi gazette as saying that the initiative starts with issuing the visa electronically and taking the vital characteristics, followed by passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after the verification of the the health requirements.

The procedure includes coding and sorting the luggage to send to their place of residency in the kingdom.

Upon their arrival, it added, the pilgrims will move directly to buses to take them to their places of residence in Makkah and Madina with designated paths while the service authorities deliver their luggage to their places of residency.

It concluded by saying that the ministry implements the initiative in cooperation with the ministries of foreign affairs, health, Hajj and Umrah, civil aviation, and the Zakat, tax and customs authorities.