MAKKAH — Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, emir of Makkah and advisor to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and chairman of the Central Hajj Committee (CHC), launched the smart card for this year’s Hajj for the first time. The Emir launched the smart card after inaugurating the Reception Center of Pilgrims in Al-Zayidi during an inspection tour of Makkah and the Holy Sites on Monday. Deputy Emir of Makkah Prince Badr Bin Sultan, Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah Abdul Fattah Mashat and other officials accompanied him. The center provides services of issuing smart cards and reading of Hajj permits through automatic reading devices. The center contains parking spaces that can accommodate more than 8,000 vehicles. Speaking on the occasion, Mashat said smart card is linked to all the services provided to the pilgrims, such as their entry to hotels in Makkah and tents in the holy sites as well as their using of means of transportation. The card can be used in payments through points of sale as well as to guide lost pilgrims on to their camps, governing access to camps and timing of grouping and transportation. It aims to facilitate the movement of pilgrims to and from Makkah and reduce the waiting time for buses that transport them between Makkah and the Holy Sites.At the outset of the inspection tour, Prince Khaled inaugurated the Security Control Center project at Al-Shumaisi, the main entry point to Makkah from Jeddah. Spreading over an area of 1.6 million square meters, the center is supported by smart systems. The center consists of administrative offices, a mosque, a Civil Defense center, Red Crescent center, and a building for security and government agencies. Later, Prince Khaled inspected the facilities and arrangements readied for the pilgrims in Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat. He visited a model of tents and listened to an explanation of their readiness to receive the pilgrims. He also examined the elaborate precautionary measures and preventive protocols taken to stem the spread of coronavirus. The Emir was briefed that the pre-cooked meals will be provided for each pilgrim in his room. More than one million meals have been prepared for the Hajj season this year, and their preparation with the highest levels of quality, safety and application of approved standards has been taken into account. The Emir was briefed on the transportation mechanism, where 3,000 buses were readied to transport the pilgrims. Each bus will transport 20 pilgrims in application of physical distancing and precautionary measures. The buses will be distributed on four tracks with colors of red, green, yellow, and blue, and each path is linked with the location of the pilgrim’s accommodation, and the grouping and crowd management of pilgrims will be done using a smart program that was specifically designed for this purpose. — SG