Saudi king okays Haj capacity increase

RIYADH: Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz approved on Thursday a proposal to increase the capacity of Makkah to accept more pilgrims during the next Haj season. 

Minister of Haj and Umrah Dr Mohammed bin Saleh bin Tahir Benten confirmed the news by expressing his thanks to King Salman, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown Prince for their approval to raise the capacity of pilgrims in the upcoming Haj season and increase the number of pilgrims from inside and outside Saudi Arabia in accordance with the regulations. 

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, Dr Benten said “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, deputy premier and interior minister, who is also head of the Haj Supreme Committee, stressed that raising number of pilgrims will be gradually implemented”. 

This came during his meeting with the heads of Haj delegations of several Arab and Islamic states.  In 2007, more than 1.7 million foreign and 746,511 domestic pilgrims performed Haj, making a total of more than 2.4 million Haj pilgrims. However last year, 1,325,372 foreign and 537,537 domestic pilgrims performed Haj, making a total of 1,862,909 pilgrims. This was the least number of pilgrims recorded in the last 10 years.