Civil Defense emergency personnel administer first aid to a young pilgrim in the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The force attended to more than 3,700 emergency cases inside the mosque complex this Ramadan. — SPA Fahd Al-Manaee Saudi Gazette MAKKAH – The Traffic Department's plans to organize traffic and ensure a smooth flow of vehicles in the holy city have proven successful as Makkah has not seen such a smooth traffic flow in many years, mainly due to the influx of vehicles that come from outside the city. In previous years, there were several locations in the city that saw regular traffic jams but this year, such locations have seen little or no traffic jams thanks to the department's effective plans.
Maj. Gen. Saad Al-Khelawee, commander of Umrah security, lauded the plans and described them as “efficient.” The department has set up many detours on main roads and changed the direction of traffic, moves which have been credited for freeing up several roads from traffic congestion. An expatriate resident who arrived from north Jeddah with a group of 30 other pilgrims said the vehicle carrying them arrived in Makkah in less than an hour during peak traffic time. “We started from Jeddah after 5 p.m. and reached Kuday car park in about 45 minutes. By 6 p.m., we were all performing Tawaf around the Ka'aba,” he said. The department implemented its plans in three phases. The first started in the beginning of Ramadan and ended ten days later while the second started on the tenth day of Ramadan and ended on the twentieth. There is a detailed traffic plan for the 26th and 27th days of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr prayers.
