Riyadh: Makkah Governor Prince Khaled Al Faisal announced that the Mashair Train project that connects the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah has been completed and it will be operational at its full capacity for the upcoming Haj which is due in early November.
Speaking to reporters in Makkah after an inspection tour of the holy sites on Saturday evening, Prince Khaled Al Faisal, who is also chairman of the Central Haj Committee, said that the final linking of the Mashair Train with the Haram and Al Haramain Railway stations will be carried out soon. Al Faisal said the Mashair Train has been completed from Arafat to Mina.
"The Haram Mosque will be linked after a study of the transport system in Makkah is completed. It will also be linked with Al Haramain Train. There is also a study under way to increase passenger capacity in Mina," he said.
Other major achievements for this year's Haj include the completion of the dam projects in Muzdalifa, and the work of municipalities in keeping the holy sites and Makkah hygienic and clean.
In a related development, Paul Anderson, an Australian Muslim expert in the operation of trains, said that Mashair Train service with a capacity to carry 72000 pilgrims per hour is credited to have the top train capacity known ever in the world in transporting passengers.
"In China and Japan, the maximum capacity of train transportation in an hour does not exceed 56000 passengers," he said in a paper presented at a workshop in Riyadh recently.
Anderson had presented the report to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs that supervised implementation of the Mashair Train Project. According to Anderson, the Mashair Train will help pilgrims avoid air pollution.
"The trains are instrumental in reducing about 30 tons of harmful gases in addition to carbon dioxide emitted from nearly 120000 buses operating service during the Haj week. This pollution causes health problems for pilgrims, especially for those suffering from heart and asthma diseases," he said.
"The trains operate at a speed of 80 km per hour while buses travel only five km per hour," Anderson said. It will take a pilgrim 8 minutes to travel what would take up to four hours on a bus, he added. "There will be no need for parking spaces on Arafat day," he said.