The fourth stage of the Haj Transportation Project, which is expected to be completed soon, will reduce the travel time between Arafat and Muzdalifah to about 45 minutes, as compared to up to eight hours in the past. Implementation of this phase includes preparing routes allocated for movement and transport of South Asia and Arab Haj transport companies, and comes as part of the Ministry of Haj’s work plans to facilitate movement of pilgrims between holy sites.

The ministry had assigned responsibility of the implementation of the fourth phase of the project to the Makkah and Holy Sites Development Commission.
According to a local newspaper, the project will be completed by the Haj season, with its most notable feature being the reduction of travel time of Haj transport companies transporting pilgrims between Arafat and Muzdalifah to 45 minutes.

In addition to reducing travel time, the project will also contribute to dividing tawafa companies at each site via specific route for each office, as well as preventing the passage of any non-specialized vehicle to transport pilgrims. According to the deputy minister of Haj for transport and holy sites projects and head of the coordination council for transport trips, Dr. Mohammed Simsim, the Ministry of Haj is keen to provide the best services to pilgrims.

He said the first meeting was held on Thursday with specialists at the Makkah and Holy Sites Development Council, with attendance of the consultant tasked with designing the fourth phase of the transport project, during which project requirements and specifications were discussed. The fourth phase comes as an extension to the first three phases which currently benefit Turkish, Australian, American, South East Asian, Iranian, non-Arab African, and Muslim European Haj transport companies.

At the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached to display the requirements and public bid specifications for the project, with implementation to be completed in 30 months, said Simsim.