Shawdesh Desk: The Hajj Office in Dhaka on Friday evening warned 55 Hajj service providers and travel operators for their delayed preparations in confirming tickets and renting accommodation in Saudi Arab for the pilgrimage.

Hajj officer Saiful Islam told New Age that 55 out of the 598 private service providers were warned and were given two days to complete all the formalities for hundreds of pilgrims in advance to avoid any tension.

Of the 55 agencies, nine were yet to communicate with the Hajj Office in Dhaka but the officials were told that most of the service  providers would fly their pilgrims at the last phase before the Hajj this year starting on August 9 and continuing till August 14.

Saiful Islam was, however, unwilling to share with New Age the number of pilgrims affected by the 55 Hajj agencies but believed that the problem would be resolved within five days.

According to the government instruction, every agency needs to confirm the tickets for their pilgrims and renting their accommodation in Saudi Arab.

Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh, said that it was the duty of the religious affairs ministry to identify those who were yet to communicate to the authorities the status of confirming the tickets and renting accommodation in Makkah.

He said that they were cooperating with the government in making the pilgrimage hassle-free.

This year’s Hajj flight began on July 4 as an aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for Saudi Arabia with 419 Bangladeshi pilgrims.

Some 1,27,198 pilgrims from Bangladesh will perform Hajj this year. Biman will carry 63,599 passengers, about half of the total Hajj pilgrims.

Biman would operate 189 pre-Hajj flights, 157 dedicated and 32 scheduled flights from July 4 to August 5, by its own four Boeing 777-300ERs.

The airlines would operate 11 flights to Madina from Dhaka for the first time this year. Apart from Dhaka, 19 Hajj flights would operate from Chattogram while three from Sylhet.

As of 12 July, the Hajj Office stated that 34,744 pilgrims were ferried to Saudi Arab until July 11. Of them, 3,766 travelled on government arrangement.

The Saudi authorities have issued 70,097 visas to Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims so far while 1,19,125 online health certificates have been issued. The Hajj Office in Makkah reported that one pilgrim named Selim, 56, meanwhile, died in Makkah on July 6.