King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has given the go-ahead for the formation of a committee to work out a 25-year long-term strategy for Haj and Umrah. The committee will be chaired by the Ministry of Haj and will include members from the ministries of interior, transportation, health and municipal and rural affairs, the Commission for Development of Makkah, the Commission for Development of Madina and the Haj Research Center. The announcement was made by the Minister of Haj, Dr. Bandar Al-Hajjar. “The committee will work out an organizational mechanism for the development of a transportation strategy as the absence of such a mechanism will create a great gap in the service in the future,” Al-Hajjar said. The minister made the comments in an address to members of the General Syndicate of Cars in Makkah which oversees 18 transportation companies. He also discussed the prospects for the localization of 25,000 seasonal jobs in Haj. “The strategy will address the problem of the breakdown of the buses used for transporting pilgrims and Umrah performers between Makkah and the holy sites.” Al-Hajjar said the strategy will calm investors who have invested more than SR7 billion in the Haj transportation field. Investors have expressed fears that the introduction of the Haramain Train service will negatively affect their investments. __
