This year, the government has approved 780 agencies in three phases to conduct Hajj activities. On Sunday (May 15), the Ministry of Religious Affairs issued an order allowing 80 agencies to conduct Hajj activities in the third phase.
Earlier, on 8 May, 610 agencies were approved in the first phase and on 9 May, 90 agencies were approved in the second phase to conduct Hajj activities.
The Hajj Agency Approval Order states that every Hajj pilgrim must enter a written agreement with the Hajj approved agencies. Each agency will have to recruit the required number of Hajj workers in Mina, Arafah and Muzdalifah. If any allegation is found against a Hajj agency, the Ministry of Religious Affairs can remove the name of the concerned agency from the list without explaining any reason.
Read More: Hajj packages costlier this yr
The order also stated that if any person is taken as a pilgrim without registration, legal action will be taken including revocation of the licence of that agency without giving any reason.
Officially this year it will cost Tk 527340 to go for Hajj under package-1. Pilgrims of this package will stay within a distance of 1,000 meters from the Masjidul Haram. The minimum package has been fixed at Tk 462000 under package-2. Under this package, pilgrims will stay within 1,500 meters of the Grand Mosque.
A package of Tk 456530 has been proposed for the pilgrims under private management. However, privately managed Hajj agencies will be able to announce multiple packages in conjunction with Government Management Package-1 and Package-2.
As the Coronavirus situation is under control, this time maximum 1 million devotees from different countries of the world are getting the opportunity of performing Hajj.
The Hajj will be held in Saudi Arabia on July 8. Saudi expatriate hoteliers and travel agencies are preparing for this.
This year, the registration process of pilgrims for Hajj under public and private management has started on Monday and the three-day registration process will continue till Wednesday (May 18). Each agency will be able to send a maximum of 300 and a minimum of 100 pilgrims this year. Although there are more than 13000 registered Hajj agencies in the country, only 1,053 of those are operational.