Jeddah, September 30: Pilgrims participating in the Holy Haj pilgrimage of 2011 have started arriving in the holy cities of Makkah and Medinah. A total of 3153 Indian pilgrims through the Indian Central Haj Committee from various parts of the country reached in 9 flights in King Abdul Aziz Haj terminal in Jeddah and 9 flights in Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Aziz airport in Medinah on the first day of Hajis arrival on Thursday.
While 3 flights from Delhi, 2 flights each from Karippur (Calicut) and Lucknow, one each from Jaipur and Varanasi arrived in Medinah one flight each from Ranchi and Patna landed in Jeddah. First Haj flight reached in Saudi this year was Saudia Airlines service from Karippur carrying 300 pilgrims. It landed in Medinah at 13:45 (Saudi time). First Indian Haj flight reached in Jeddah was NAS Airlines flight carrying 300 pilgrims from Ranchi 2 hours at 19:00(Saudi time).
Indian ambassador Hamid Ali Ravu, Haj consul B S Mubark and other Indian and Saudi officials received Indian hajis arrived in Jeddah airport while Indian consul General Faize Ahmed Kidwai , Medinah Indian Haj mission officials and unofficial volunteer organization Medinah Indian Haj Welfare Forum workers were present to welcome Hajis of first day flights in Medinah airport .
Those arrived in Jeddah headed for Makkah, some 100 km away, after procedures at the airport.
Total of 170,491 pilgrims from India would perform Haj this year, the consulate general of India disclosed in a press brief here. It also explained that the consulate would directly coordinate the arrangements for 125,000 Indian pilgrims coming through Haj Committee of India (HCoI). Another 45,491 pilgrims would perform Haj through India based private tour operators.
For the Haj committee of India pilgrims, a total number of 424 (SV-315 and NAS-109) aircrafts would operate. Saudi Arabian Airlines would carry 92948 pilgrims and 30228 pilgrims would be carried by NAS. The first flight at Madinah would be landing on 29th September at 1325 hrs from Calicut.
Starting from 29th September, an average 13 aircrafts would be carrying about 3900 pilgrims per day till 1st November from 21 different embarkation points.
Central Haj Committee pilgrims will fly to Jeddah and Medinah from Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Calicut, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Ranchi,Varanasi, Patna and Srinagar where Patna, and Srinagar would be Hub & Spoke points.
During the arrival phase 187 flights carrying 64000 pilgrims would land in Jeddah and 244 flights carrying 60000 pilgrims would land in Madinah. During the departure phase 255 flights carrying 75000 pilgrims would depart from Jeddah and 176 flights carrying 49,000 pilgrims would depart from Madinah.
-Courtesy: TOI