Mubarak and Rahman Sheikh said that the Haj mission had some challenges to tackle with regards serving of food for pilgrims in Madinah.
The Haj mission had contracted Saudia Airlines Catering Co./Makarem Bakkah Co. for providing food for 60,000 pilgrims while Mukhtara
Co./Bathawi Catering Co. won the contract for providing food for the remaining 40,000 pilgrims in Madinah.
But on the first day of the arrival of the pilgrims (Aug. 16), Saudia Catering pulled out of their contractual obligations in the 11th hour.
They insisted that they couldn’t offer fresh food but only frozen one. When they failed to fulfill their contractual obligations, the mission had a tough
time to find out two new caterers.
“We reached a deal with two new companies — Thuryya and AlSalam.
They are providing food together with Mukhtara, which is among the best
catering companies and the only company that we picked from last year’s companies,” said Rahman Sheikh adding that the Haj mission had
refunded many pilgrims when they demanded their money back in the event of failure of provision of food on time. Around 140 staffers are
engaged in serving food for pilgrims staying at 70 buildings, he said.
A total of 505 out of 546 officials have come from India to serve the pilgrims. So far 15 pilgrims, including three from private groups, have died, and
of this one pilgrim died in an accident in Madinah, Rahman Sheikh added.