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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
On Tuesday, Lucknow was added as a new embarkation point for Haj pilgrims, when a batch of 200 pilgrims took off for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
The special Air India flight took off from Lucknow's Amousi aerodrome at 3 pm (IST) amid much excitement and appreciation from the pilgrims, who earlier had to go all the way to Delhi to board their flights.
Nadwa-tul-Ulema, the Lucknow based prestigious centre for Islamic studies was turned into a base camp for the Hajis, many of whom had arrived from distant parts of Uttar Pradesh.
P K Sinha, Air India regional manager, who is specially camping in Lucknow for the smooth conduct of 35 flights, which will take off daily for a full one month up to February 15, said, "Lucknow was added to the existing seven embarkation points for the first time largely because of the substantial number of Hajis going from in and around the state capital."
The other embarkation points are Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Srinagar and Kozhikode.
A unique feature of the arrangements was the creation of a 'mini airport' at Nadwa itself, with what was termed as complete 'remote check-in facilities'.
Special foreign exchange counters had also been set up by Vysya Bank to facilitate the Hajis.
"We have been authorised to provide foreign exchange to all the Haj pilgrims for which we had set up special counters at each of the eight Air India and Indian Airlines embarkation points," Neeraj Nigam, a top official of the bank, said.
The huge hall on the first floor of the Amousi airport was also converted into a makeshift mosque with separate enclosures for men and women to offer namaz.
"We have also allowed extra entitlement of free baggage to all Haj pilgrims," an Air India spokesman said.
Hajis checking in at the 'mini-airport' were all praises for the new arrangements. Forty-five year old Razia Begum said, "This has come as a boon for people like me who remain perpetually ill and are not in a position to undertake long journeys to Delhi or Mumbai to board flights to Saudi Arabia."
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