Tangerang City Government Disburses IDR 1 Billion Specifically For Inter-Jemput Hajj Pilgrims

Bus shalawat to escort Indonesian pilgrims from the hotel to the Grand Mosque of Makkah in June 2022 (ANTARA-Desi P)

BANTEN - The Tangerang City Government (Pemkot) disbursed Rp1 billion in funds to help the needs of the departure and repatriation of 1,652 prospective hajj candidates from their area.

"The assistance is used to provide transportation from Tangerang City to Pondok Gede Hajj Dormitory and vice versa," said Tangerang Mayor Arief R. Wismansyah while reviewing preparations for the departure of pilgrims for Hajj at the Tangerang City Hajj Dormitory in Cipondoh, Monday, May 22, which was confiscated by Antara.

He revealed that the Tangerang City Government provided 45 buses to take and pick up pilgrims from Tangerang City to Pondok Gede's dormitory.

The three-national Tangerang City Hajj pilgrims are scheduled to depart on Tuesday, May 23. Various preparations have been made by the Tangerang City Hajj Departure Committee (PPIH).

Mayor Arief explained that this year the Hajj candidates from Tangerang City are divided into six groups, which are planned to depart on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, and the last batch on June 14.

The six groups from Tangerang City, namely group 3, group 7, group 25, group 33, each with 383 Hajj candidates. Furthermore, in batch 55 there are 28 Hajj candidates and batch 58 with 92 Hajj candidates.

In addition to providing transportation, the Tangerang City Government is also trying to repatriate pilgrims to go directly to the Tangerang City Hajj Dormitory. So, from Soekarno Hatta Airport, Tangerang city pilgrims no longer need to transit to Pondok Gede.

"So, sorry for the pilgrims who have to make a long transit to Pondok Gede, later from the airport they can go directly to Tangerang. That's why now we are preparing traffic engineering and parking, if the building is almost finished," he said.

Meanwhile, one of the officials of the Tangerang City Ministry of Religion H. Tutun said that this year the buses provided came from one of the leading travel companies in the country.

"We provide a comfortable bus, with a capacity of 45 buses. So, it's not too narrow. The congregation also gets consumption during the trip on the bus," he said.