Udupi, Oct 17: M. Salim Ambagilu, member of the State Haj Committee, said on Friday that 750 pilgrims would be leaving from the Bajpe airport, near Mangalore, for the annual Haj pilgrimage. This was the first time ever that the Haj pilgrims were setting off from Bajpe in Mangalore. Ambagilu told presspersons that hitherto there was only one embarking point at Bangalore for Haj pilgrims in the State. A second embarking point had been started at Bajpe airport for the first time this year. The 750 Haj piligrims leaving from Bajpe were from Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, and Kodagu districts, he said.
The Haj pilgrims were scheduled to leave from Mangalore between October 24 and 30. The airplane would take the pilgrims from Mangalore to Calicut from where they would board a flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, he said.
A Haj camp would be set up at Mohiuddin Jumma Masjid Hall and Ansar English Medium School, near the Bajpe airport, to welcome the pilgrims and provide them with various facilities.The State Government had received 23,000 applications for Haj pilgrimage. Of them, 5,750 had been selected in a transparent manner. The Government wanted to construct a Haj Bhavan for Haj pilgrims in Bangalore at a cost of Rs. 5 crore. It had released Rs. 2.5 crore for purchasing land for this bhavan, he said.
The State Haj Committee would urge the Government to construct a similar Haj Bhavan near Bajpe airport, Ambagilu added.State Haj Committee member Hussain Sakhafi Emmemadu and general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Minorities Morcha Arif Kallotti were present.