Cairo: Saudi Arabia plans to boost the use of advanced technology, including smart cameras, to help detect unregistered pilgrims after many of them died during the recent annual Hajj pilgrimage season amid extreme heat.
The kingdom's Ministry of Hajj will contract an information technology company to set up a cutting-edge system designed to recognise pilgrims upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, board buses, enter their residences in the holy city of Mecca and other sacred sites, and compile electronic lists of boarding and housing through installing smart cameras and other technological solutions, reported Saudi news portal Akhbar24.
The technology will also help communicate with the pilgrims and easily get data about them. The ministry is keen that the to-be-installed techniques will be user-friendly, easy to operate, and get linked to other systems as well as based on the usage of trustworthy technologies, it added.
The envisaged network will cover entrances and exits of Mecca, other holy places, checkpoints, access points to the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, parking areas of buses for transporting the pilgrims, the King Abdulaziz airport in Jeddah, and the Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz airport in Medina – two hubs for overseas Muslims arriving to perform Hajj.
The recent Hajj that took place in June in and around Mecca coincided with scorching heat. Saudi Arabia said over 1,300 pilgrims, mostly undocumented, died after trekking for long distances under the sun.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly said that a Hajj visa is mandatory to perform the pilgrimage and cracked down on fake tours. A visit visa does not qualify its holder to go on the holy journey.
Hajj is one of Islam’s five obligatory duties. Muslims, who can physically and financially afford Hajj, have to perform it at least once in a lifetime.
