Riyadh, September 10: The government has, for the first time, decided to introduce a penalty clause in the agreement to be signed with Saudi Arabian carriers that won the bid to carry out Haj operations this year.
The penalty clause specifies that in the event of cancellation of a flight during the Haj, the airline will be liable to pay compensation or any other penalty specified by authorities, said a source.
The airlines will have to serve refreshments to travellers in case of an hour’s delay, full meals in case of a three-hour delay. If the flight gets delayed beyond six hours, the airlines will have to provide transportation along with hotel arrangements, said a Civil Aviation Ministry official. In addition, the carriers will be asked to provide food packets at the time of boarding and deboarding.
Last year, pilgrims had to face harassment as the flights originating from Saudi Arabia got delayed for over 12 hours due to massive congestion at the airport. Beginning this year, the embarkation points have been increased from 19 to 21, adding Bhopal and Goa on the Haj map. The Ministry of External Affairs has made it mandatory for pilgrims to carry passport as the only valid travel document.
The Civil Aviation Ministry is expected to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three Saudi carriers — Saudia, NAS and Al Wafeer — that had won the competitive bid in a week’s time. The committee that overlooked the bidding process included officials from the External Affairs Ministry, Haj Committee of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation besides Civil Aviation Ministry. The committee had kept a condition that aircraft older than 20 years cannot be deployed on this route.
Of the 1.25 lakh pilgrims to be sent by the Haj Committee of India, Saudia Airline is expected to fly 85,000-88,000, NAS will fly 20,000-22,000 and the remaining will be carried by Al Wafeer.
The Saudi carriers had bid $ 1,000 as the round trip fare whereas national carrier Air India had made a bid of $ 2,600. “The subsidy bill is expected to come down as Saudi carriers’ bid has emerged as the lowest fare,” said the official.
The government foots an annual subsidy bill of over Rs 700 crore for the Haj pilgrimage to Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina. In an effort to contain this subsidy the government has raised the individual contribution from Haj pilgrims to Rs 16,000 from Rs 12,000 which had been charged 1994 onwards. “The individual contribution will be raised by Rs 4,000 annually to bridge the gap,” said the official.
——–Agencies