Took the opportunity to perform the Umrah on my recent meeting trip to Jeddah. It was considered still early for the Umrah season and was informed that the umrah visa were only issued about a month earlier. But the crowd that I saw at the airport arrival hall was huge with rows of passengers from different countries in their ‘ihram’ queueing patiently to pass through the immigration counters. The rate of passenger arrivals and the time taken by the immigration officers to scrutinize each single passports makes the queue line grew longer as the time passed. Well they are doing their job, I guess, to ensure that the documents are in order and only the eligible are allowed into their country.
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Notwithstanding that, how I wish that the Saudi immigration system could be upgraded and better improved to portray a positive and progressive image of an Islamic nation. As muslims, we will surely be proud of it. Too much negative connotations has been associated with Islam and Muslims, among which includes backwardness in economic development and lacks progress. It is within ourselves to change that perception.
There are many new buildings towering around the Masjidil Haram since my last trip to Makkah about a year ago. Masjidil Haram looks sunken to the ordinary eyes if one were to look down from any of the towers. It is really an impressive and awesome sights seeing the congregation of the faithful circling the Kaabah. One could see numerous tunnels in and around Makkah that could help to alleviate traffic congestion as the Umrah seasons picks up. I firmly believed that the Governorate of Makkah will continue to upgrade the road and tunnel systems to improve the transportation services especially around the locality of the Masjidil Haram. Besides the traffic problems, one will not fail to see the mushrooming of new towering buildings to accommodate the ever increasing Muslims coming to Makkah to perform the Umrah and Haj from year to year.
The number of visitors to Makkah will continue to grow and will really be taxing on the Governorate in the long run to provide with an efficient and effective transportation and accommodation facilities. They will have to look at different approach and models to address future needs becasue the current development is just too compact within the vicinity of Masjidil Haram. An idea that comes to my mind is perhaps to disperse the development of apartments/hotels, etc at the outskirts or suburb of Makkah and perhaps have underground tunnels with “walkalator” (walking escalator) that would link from the new development areas to Masjidil Haram. Just a thought though!!
Jeddah itself is slowly undergoing transformation with more green areas in sight. One could see more palm trees being planted on the streets dividers. Many new areas are being developed and dispersed throughout Jeddah. The governorate seems to be spreading the development to new areas which directly helps to develop the infrastructure of those areas. The new building structures that come up also provides a refreshing, cheerful and modern outlook of Jeddah where there are more colours to the new buildings and structures rather than the mundane “off white” paint that we generally see of the old buildings in Jeddah.
There are many new buildings towering around the Masjidil Haram since my last trip to Makkah about a year ago. Masjidil Haram looks sunken to the ordinary eyes if one were to look down from any of the towers. It is really an impressive and awesome sights seeing the congregation of the faithful circling the Kaabah. One could see numerous tunnels in and around Makkah that could help to alleviate traffic congestion as the Umrah seasons picks up. I firmly believed that the Governorate of Makkah will continue to upgrade the road and tunnel systems to improve the transportation services especially around the locality of the Masjidil Haram. Besides the traffic problems, one will not fail to see the mushrooming of new towering buildings to accommodate the ever increasing Muslims coming to Makkah to perform the Umrah and Haj from year to year.
The number of visitors to Makkah will continue to grow and will really be taxing on the Governorate in the long run to provide with an efficient and effective transportation and accommodation facilities. They will have to look at different approach and models to address future needs becasue the current development is just too compact within the vicinity of Masjidil Haram. An idea that comes to my mind is perhaps to disperse the development of apartments/hotels, etc at the outskirts or suburb of Makkah and perhaps have underground tunnels with “walkalator” (walking escalator) that would link from the new development areas to Masjidil Haram. Just a thought though!!
Jeddah itself is slowly undergoing transformation with more green areas in sight. One could see more palm trees being planted on the streets dividers. Many new areas are being developed and dispersed throughout Jeddah. The governorate seems to be spreading the development to new areas which directly helps to develop the infrastructure of those areas. The new building structures that come up also provides a refreshing, cheerful and modern outlook of Jeddah where there are more colours to the new buildings and structures rather than the mundane “off white” paint that we generally see of the old buildings in Jeddah.
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