AFP/Riyadh
Saudi Arabia is planning to triple the number of visas it issues for umrah pilgrimage, reports said on Monday.
The Saudi Gazette and Okaz newspapers quoted Haj Minister Bandar al-Hajjar as saying that as many as 1.25 million pilgrims are expected to arrive each month starting next year.
That compares with 400,000 a month now, the reports said.
Hajjar was quoted as saying the new system would allow full use of massive expansion projects at the kingdom's holy sites.
Umrah is a pilgrimage carried out any time during the year.
The major Haj pilgrimage, which all Muslims with the means are expected to complete at least once, this year drew about two million faithful.
The number had declined, particularly because of a multi-billion-dollar expansion which began four years ago at the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
The 400,000-square-metre (4.3-million-square-feet) Grand Mosque enlargement is the equivalent of more than 50 football pitches, and it will allow the complex to accommodate roughly two million people at once.
