Municipalities and Housing Ministry Confirms Readiness to Serve Pilgrims This Hajj Season
The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing announced its readiness for the 1446 AH Hajj season as part of its ongoing efforts through the Holy Makkah Municipality and other supporting municipalities.
The ministry indicated that the aim is to provide seamless services to pilgrims in a safe environment through an integrated operational system covering service, monitoring, health, and field aspects, in addition to support and emergency response centers.
The ministry's plan is based on mobilizing resources and preparing the necessary capabilities to meet the needs of the Hajj season.
The operational plan includes over 2,800 heavy vehicles and machines, more than 22,000 personnel from various technical and supervisory fields—of whom over 14,000 are assigned to sanitation services—along with more than 87,000 waste containers, 1,235 electric waste compactors with a capacity of up to 10 tons each, and 118 underground storage units.
Preparations include 177 shelter halls with a capacity of up to 15,300 pilgrims, and a central food safety laboratory capable of processing over 700 samples daily, supported by four mobile labs with a capacity of 200 samples each per day.
A dedicated municipal services operations center -- 940 -- was assigned, along with a joint operations center – 911 -- to ensure rapid response and effective coordination.
Additionally, 28 municipal service centers were set up in the holy sites — 22 in Mina, 3 in Muzdalifah, and 3 in Arafat — ensuring full coverage. The centers incorporate modern technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline procedures and deliver services efficiently.
As part of its volunteer efforts, the ministry — through the Holy Makkah Municipality — provided various volunteer tracks, including public sanitation, monitoring, food preservation, honoring the deceased, and others.
The ministry also noted that it continues to implement its operational and field plan to enhance the efficiency of infrastructure and service facilities, sanitation and health monitoring, and to apply technological solutions that enable the immediate delivery of multilingual services to meet pilgrims' needs at the holy sites.
