{"id":6981,"date":"2017-08-21T21:51:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T20:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=6981"},"modified":"2017-08-21T21:51:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T20:51:58","slug":"800000-more-pilgrims-due-this-year-after-makkah-grand-mosque-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/800000-more-pilgrims-due-this-year-after-makkah-grand-mosque-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"800,000 more pilgrims due this year after Makkah grand mosque expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6051\" src=\"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Hajj.jpg\" alt=\"Hajj\" width=\"270\" height=\"187\" \/>Some 800,000 more pilgrims are expected this season following completion of expansion works at the Grand Mosque.<br \/>\nA report by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said this year\u2019s Umrah season witnessed the arrival of some 7 million people.<br \/>\nThe ministry is working with pilgrimage institutions to raise capacity for future Umrah and Hajj seasons, and to establish a modern hospitality industry in line with Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020.<br \/>\nThe report cited infrastructure achievements in Makkah, Madinah and the holy sites to provide better services for pilgrims and visitors.<br \/>\nIt also cited strategic initiatives launched by the ministry, such as the electronic observation and control center to connect pilgrim service centers with decision-makers and improve coordination between all parties involved in Hajj.<br \/>\nThe report highlighted the ministry\u2019s \u201cBe Helpful\u201d voluntary program, which is being implemented for the first time this Hajj season.<br \/>\nThe program aims to serve pilgrims, develop services offered to pilgrims, and gauge the performance and effectiveness of voluntary work.<br \/>\nThe report said the ministry is aware of the importance of enhancing the role of women in serving pilgrims via official and seasonal jobs.<br \/>\nPrince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, deputy governor of the Makkah region, ordered the formation of a multilateral committee to ensure the safety of buildings dedicated to accommodating pilgrims.<br \/>\nThe committee comprises representatives from the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Civil Defense and Tawafa establishments, in cooperation with specialized technicians and engineers.<br \/>\nPrince Abdullah presided over a meeting of Tawafa and Zamazemah establishments, which was attended by Minister of Hajj and Umrah Mohammed Salih Bentin and heads of the institutions.<br \/>\nThe deputy governor reviewed plans for this year\u2019s Hajj season, which aim to serve more than 2.2 million pilgrims.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\r\n<script>(function(d, s, id) {\r\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\r\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\r\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\r\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\r\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\r\n}(document, \"script\", \"facebook-jssdk\"));<\/script>\r\n <fb:comments href=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/800000-more-pilgrims-due-this-year-after-makkah-grand-mosque-expansion\/\" font=\"arial\" num_posts=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" colorscheme=\"light\"  style=\"background:#FFFFFF;padding-top:0px;\r\npadding-right:0px;\r\npadding-bottom:0px;\r\npadding-left:0px;\r\nmargin-top:0px;\r\nmargin-right:0px;\r\nmargin-bottom:0px;\r\nmargin-left:0px;\r\n\"><\/fb:comments>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some 800,000 more pilgrims are expected this season following completion of expansion works at the Grand Mosque. A report by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said this year\u2019s Umrah season witnessed the arrival of some 7 million people. The ministry is working with pilgrimage institutions to raise capacity for future Umrah and Hajj seasons, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6982,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981\/revisions\/6982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}