MAKKAH: The Ministry of Transport for Road Operation and Maintenance of Saudi Arabia has developed a flexible flooring walkway linking Arafah and Muzdalifah for the convenience of pilgrims, especially the elderly.
Deputy Minister Tareq Ziyad Al-Shami said the 1,000-metre-long and 15-metre-wide walkway is built from mixed materials consisting of bitumen, asphalt and rubber, making the walkway surface flexible and comfortable.
The surface of the walkway is painted with special bright grey colour paint that sticks to the asphalt and is capable in reducing the walkway’s surface heat by 13 to 15 degrees Celsius.
‘People can walk from Arafah to Muzdalifah on this walkway without feeling pain on their knees or (experiencing) knee pressure. As you know old people (often) have knee and back pain. We wanted to come up with something to make it easier for them to walk,’ he told reporters when met in Arafah here today.
According to Tareq, they are trying to improve the new walkway from time to time and hoped that sim
ilar walkways could be expanded to linking Muzdalifah and Mina in the future for the comfort of pilgrims.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency