RIYADH,
January 15, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A few days
after the annual hajj ended on a tragic note, Saudi authorities swang
into action pulling down the Jamarat Bridge as part of a wider revamp
project to stave off deadly stampedes in the future.
"The
first stage of the projected overhaul of Jamarat bridge in Mina began
on Saturday and will be completed and ready for next year's
hajj," Reuters reported on Sunday, January 15, quoting Osama
Al-Bar, who heads a government center helping organize hajj.
"Jamarat
bridge has become the most sensitive area in hajj."
Saudi
authorities had already said the Jamarat Bridge would be replaced with
an elaborate system of entrances and exits, including a subway, which
will cost 4.2 billion riyals ($1.12 billion).
The
first stage of the three-year project, which will be ready for the
next hajj, involves a two-storey bridge and an underground emergency
exit for pilgrims and ambulances.
Al-Bar
said the development of the 32-years-old Jamarat Bridge would allow
the kingdom to host more than the 2.5 million pilgrims it currently
allows.
Some
363 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death in a deadly hajj stampede on
Thursday, January 15, while performing the symbolic stoning of the
devil at the climax of hajj.
Saudi
authorities blamed the stampede on unruly pilgrims from outside
officially-sanctioned operators.
But
some witnesses said police triggered the chaos by suddenly blocking
the entrance to the bridge.
Other
witnesses reported panic among pilgrims about when they should perform
the last rite of hajj.
Automated
The
Jamarat Bridge will be widened by 20 meters to allow the devil-stoning
for 250,000 Muslims pilgrims per hour, Al-Bar said.
"The
new Jamarat bridge will be equipped with a system allowing automated
system to remove stones from the basins," he told the
London-based Saudi-owned daily Asharq Alawsat.
"It
will also include an automated cleaning system as well as an advanced
emergency system."
Al-Bar
said that a six-way underground tunnel would be established north of
the Jamarat Bridge area to ease crowdedness.
The
project will also include planes' landing spots, emergency exits and
pedestrian tunnels.
There
have been many deadly hajj stampedes in the past. A total of 251
Muslim pilgrims were trampled to death in the 2004 hajj as people
panicked during the devil-stoning rite.
In
2003, 14 pilgrims, including six women, were killed in a stampede
during the first day of the stoning ritual, and 35 died in 2001, while
in 1998 the hajj saw 118 killed and more than 180 hurt in Mina.
The
deadliest toll was in 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or
asphyxiated to death in a stampede in a tunnel, also in Mina.
Muslim
pilgrims hurl seven pebbles from behind a fence or from the overhead
bridge every day for three days at each of the three 18-meter
(58-foot) high concrete pillars symbolizing the devil.
Satan
appeared on the same site to Prophet Abraham, son Ismael and wife
Hagar, who each threw seven stones at the devil.
In
2004, an Egyptian scholar put forward a couple of
