The first group of 150 Haj pilgrims from Telangana State left for their pilgrimage to Jeddah on Wednesday. The Home Minister, Mohammed Mahmood Ali, flagged off the first bus from the Haj House in Nampally. The pilgrims left from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by a special flight of Vistara Airlines at 10.15 am. Emotional scenes were witnessed as relatives, friends and well-wishers bid adieu to the pilgrims.
This year, nearly 7,000 pilgrims, including pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will depart from Hyderabad Embarkation point. The Haj Committee made all the arrangements for food and accommodation for the pilgrims who had come from various districts of Telangana. The Haj camp started on June 5 and will continue for 18 days. Various departments provided services like vaccination, passport distribution, customs clearance, baggage screening and currency exchange under one roof. Boarding passes for the pilgrims were also issued at Haj House.
Vistara Airlines will operate a total of 46 Haj flights from Hyderabad till June 22. Three Haj flights will be operated daily from June 8. Mohammed Saleem, along with members of State Haj Committee personally supervised the arrangements minutely at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. They bid send off to the pilgrims at the tarmac before pilgrims boarded the special flight. Later they flagged off the plane before takeoff.
