Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, represented by the Holy Makkah Mayoralty, has announced the completion of its operational and service readiness for the 2026 Hajj season, through an integrated municipal framework designed to enhance safety, safeguard public health, and improve field response efficiency across vital locations. The announcement marks one of the most extensively planned editions of the annual pilgrimage to date, as the Kingdom mobilises an unprecedented scale of human and technical resources to manage millions of pilgrims expected to converge on Makkah and the surrounding holy sites for the 1447 AH season.
Preparations include deploying over 22,000 field personnel alongside more than 3,000 vehicles and equipment units, supported by round-the-clock emergency teams, shelters, and fixed and mobile laboratories for on-ground operations. Extensive infrastructure work has upgraded roads covering over 73 million square meters, supported by 123 bridges and 44 tunnels, while readiness across Mina, Arafat, and Muzdalifah now extends over 4.6 million square meters. The scale of the infrastructure investment reflects years of planning, with the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites having invested approximately SAR 6 billion over the past four years to upgrade holy site infrastructure, including expanding pedestrian pathways to 66,000 square meters and quadrupling restroom capacity in Mina.
On the sanitation and food safety front, advanced laboratories have been set up capable of analysing up to 1,300 samples daily, with inspectors conducting more than 2,800 daily inspections to ensure high-quality service standards are maintained throughout the pilgrimage season. The waste management dimension of Hajj operations remains one of the most logistically demanding aspects of the entire exercise. During the 2024 Hajj season, nearly 90,000 tons of waste were removed from Makkah and the holy sites, with the Makkah Municipality deploying field teams, labour, and specialised equipment including small carts designed to be easily manoeuvred in crowded areas with limited space, alongside 1,135 garbage compactor stations and 113 temporary storage facilities, supported by 28 service centres geographically distributed across Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Mina.
The volunteer programme is also operating at scale this year. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipalities and Housing has deployed more than 4,500 trained volunteers as part of a wider programme expected to involve over 20,000 participants throughout the season, with volunteers assisting pilgrims at airports, land entry points, municipal facilities, and holy sites while also supporting crowd movement, guiding pilgrims, and working alongside municipal teams on operational tasks. In Madinah, municipal authorities have assigned more than 5,700 field workers supported by 1,234 vehicles and equipment, covering an operational area of 943 square kilometres, with the plan focusing on food safety standards, waste management, road maintenance, and rapid emergency response. Paired with this physical readiness, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has deployed smart sensors linked to mandatory Nusuk cards to monitor crowd movement in real time, adding a digital layer to what is already the world’s largest annual managed gathering.
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