More electric wheelchairs for the disabled at Jamrat

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has provided 234 electric wheelchairs for use at the Jamrat (stoning area) and its vicinity to facilitate the Haj rituals through safe and easy mobility.
Wajdi bin Hassan Toulah, director of maintenance and operations in the holy sites, said these electric wheelchairs will serve more than 70,000 disabled pilgrims in addition to their companions which takes the number to 200,000.
The number of chairs were increased following the allocation of three more paths in addition to the existing five leading to the bottom of Mount Arafat. Toulah said that two more paths had been added to the pedestrian area in Aziziyah while an additional 50 carriers had been provided to further facilitate the disabled pilgrims.
“The electric wheelchairs will soon become operational on the three new paths including the first path which ascends from the Jamrat yards from the southern side to the second floor of the facility with 665 carriages. Path number two which ascends on the northern side of the Jamrat facility to the second floor has been allocated 28 carriages while path number three in Mina has a capacity of 105 carriages in addition to paths seven and eight with 29 carriages.
All these paths converge on the King Abdulaziz road and can transport 900 pilgrims.
Wajdi said the operational plan in Jamarat for serving the disabled, the elderly and the sick called for the allocation of a large number of drivers, supervisors and maintenance teams.
There are around 232 drivers who work on 12-hour shifts in addition to 134 field supervisors and maintenance technicians who work around the clock to assist users and deal with technical issues.