MECCA, Aug 31 — The Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro Southern Line (MMMSL) for Haj pilgrims recorded a remarkable achievement of 117 per cent on its runs at the inauguration of the service today.
The MMMSL, operated by Prasarana Integrated Management & Engineering Services (PRIME) — a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Prasarana, recorded 272 runs to bring pilgrims from Mina to Arafah, exceeding the targeted 232 runs, PRIME chief executive officer Masnizam Hisham said to Malaysian journalists.
“Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), everything went smoothly on these runs, and the service was concluded at 11 am (Saudi Arabian time), much earlier than scheduled,” he said.
These runs, involving the use of 15 trains, transported more than 332,000 pilgrims, he added.
Masnizan said the service would cease during the period of the Wukuf, beginning from the time of the Zuhur prayers, and the trains would run again from 6.38 pm to transport the pilgrims from Arafah to Muzdalifah.
He said the evening runs would be more challenging for the operator because the pilgrims would move simultaneously to the three MMMSL stations in Arafah, namely Arafah 1, Arafah 2 and Arafah 3.
“We hope everything goes smoothly as we have planned,” he said.
The MMMSL trains operate for seven days beginning Aug 29, specifically to transport pilgrims numbering about 350,000 across nine stations on the line connecting Arafah, Muzdalifah and Mina.
Due to the location of the pilgrim camps in the Holy Land, only pilgrims from the Middle East and South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka get the opportunity to use the trains. — Bernama
