Over the past years, Saudi Arabia has attracted thousands of visitors from different countries who come to The Holy Mosque and her guests during the annual Hajj and Umrah air raids while some of them are pilgrims.
The Saudi Vision 2030 has, therefore, led to improvements in various areas among them the development of new infrastructure, improved services, the expansion of the Islamic identity, and cultural norms.
The Ministry of Interior has developed the Makkah Route Initiative, which uses portable devices with fingerprint biometric tablets and AI technology to improve the quality of services provided to pilgrims at initiative terminals in 11 airports across seven countries.
Riyadh looks like this on June 5, 2024. For several decades, Saudi Arabia has been honored with the service of Two Holy Mosques and their visitors. Annually the pilgrims and visitors to perform Hajj and Umrah are in millions. From creating new facilities to enhancing the existing services, from developing the Islamic Identity to enriching the cultural traditions, a sea change has been witnessed due to the Saudi Vision 2030. Both the security, service, and logistical sectors of the Kingdom have been able to efficiently manage and arrange the large numbers of people who go to the Madinah and Makkah regions on an annual basis.
For these efforts to be successful, additional programs and activities are required. The Ministry of Interior has developed the Makkah Route Initiative to meet the requirements of the Pilgrims Experience Programme, which is one of the initiatives included in Saudi Vision 2030. In later years, this initiative has made significant progress in creating the concept of service honor. The objective of the initiative is to enhance services for pilgrims traveling through the initiative terminals during the reception.
Partners in the organization are working together towards the implementation of this initiative. The Ministry of the Interior invested in the Makkah Route Initiative this year (1445H/2024), which represents the sixth operating year of the initiative, at 11 airports in seven countries that benefit from the initiative, including the use of portable devices, which are fingerprint biometric tablets boosted by artificial intelligence (AI), and innovative digital solutions. This investment was made by the Ministry of Interior as the number of pilgrims had been increasing every year. The countries represented by these devices are Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Ivory Coast.
These devices were developed in conjunction with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), which makes the beneficiary procedures simple, safe, and reliable by capturing vital characteristics and the passenger's photo, reading passport data, as well as offering services for the elderly and people with special needs. The portable device is also supplied with a fingerprint sensor, a passport reader, front and rear cameras, as well as a beneficiary data processing network in addition to the possibility of fingerprint recognition on the Ministry of the Interior networks. The Ministry of the Interior approves and verifies the safety of the travel and visa documents of the applicant. This technology also supports passport operators during the peak period at the ports to increase throughput and reduce the crowd. To enhance productivity, this project will transform the temporary ports into international ports.
