Saudi Arabia launches ‘Road to Makkah’ initiative

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior launched a “Road to Makkah” initiative in five countries, including Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco and Bangladesh for the fourth year since launching the initiative for the first time in 2019.

The ministry said that the “Road to Makkah” initiative aims at to receive the pilgrims and complete their procedures from their countries with ease.

It starts with issuing the visa electronically and taking the vital characteristics and then passing through the complete passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after verifying the availability of health requirements, Saudi Gazette reported.

Also, the procedures include coding and sorting pilgrims’ luggage to send it to their place of residency in the Kingdom.

Upon their arrival, they move directly to buses to take them to their places of residence in Makkah and Madinah along with designated paths while the service authorities deliver their luggage to their place of residency.

The ministry implements the initiative in cooperation with the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health, Hajj and Umrah, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority “SDAIA”, “Doyof (Guests) Al Rahman Program”, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 executive programs, the General Directorate of Passports, and Elm Company.