Jamrat Bridge to Be Ready Before Forthcoming Haj
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 30 September 2006 — The first phase of the new Jamrat expansion project in Mina will be completed by the beginning of December ahead of the next Haj season, according to Habeeb Zainul Abideen, deputy minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

“We have already completed 70 percent of the first phase. God willing, the remaining part will be ready within the next 65 days,” the minister said, adding that about 10,000 people have been working round the clock to finish the project on time.

The SR4.2-billion ($1.12-billion) project was designed by the government as part of its efforts to avoid stampedes and crowding in the Jamrat area. In the past, hundreds of pilgrims have died performing the stoning ritual with 360 pilgrims losing their lives as a result of a massive stampede on the last day of the Haj last year.

Administering the Haj is an incredible undertaking. It requires not only providing food and housing for about two million people, who descend on a site for a 10-day period, but to manage their safety as they go through a series of ritual movements simultaneously throughout a several square mile area. Nothing in Western culture compares: it’s the equivalent of holding 10 Super Bowls simultaneously with 10 national political conventions, with a marathon thrown in.

As a consequence of the enormous demands pilgrims put on the areas involved and the support systems, they have been accidents in the past that have claimed hundreds of lives. The Saudi government has constantly been seeking ways to better the traffic flow, up to and including stressing particular hadith that reduce the need for all pilgrims to be in one place at one time. But accidents still happen.

The effort here is directed at one particular area of the pilgrimage ritual, Mina. Pilgrims travel to Mina twice: early in the pilgrimage, then again toward the end, where they stone the pillars of Jamrat. (See this useful map from Christian Science Monitor.) Last year, hundreds were killed in a stampede. The scale of the budget for this improvement should give some idea of how seriously the Saudi government takes its responsibilities as host of the Haj and guardian of the two holy places.