SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi students invent transport system to aid elderly pilgrims during Haj

Record ID: 188917

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi students invent transport system to aid elderly pilgrims during Haj
  • Date: 23rd February 2012
  • Summary: MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE - NOVEMBER 2011) (REUTERS) GRAND MOSQUE DURING EVENING PRAYERS VARIOUS OF PILGRIMS PRAYING WOMAN TALKING TO PILGRIM/ MAN IN BACKGROUND PUSHING WOMAN IN WHEELCHAIR GOING BETWEEN SAFA AND MARWA, TWO OF THE PILGRIMAGE STATIONS, AT THE GRAND MOSQUE VOLUNTEER PUSHING WOMAN IN A WHEELCHAIR VOLUNTEER PUSHING WOMAN IN A WHEELCHAIR/ ANOTHER MAN PUSHING WOMAN IN A WHEELCHAIR
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: Technology,Religion,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA2FEG9ZZZCZ9MF6DBSFYF80W16
  • Story Text: Evening prayer during the Muslim Haj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is a scene like no other: the marble floor around the Grand Mosque is hardly visible as millions of worshippers fall to their knees in prayer outside the overflowing Grand Mosque.
    The pilgrimage was once the culmination of an arduous desert journey over perilous weeks or months, but with the advent of modern transport, the number of annual pilgrims has risen to more than 2.5 million, gridlocking the city's roads and compromising safety.
    Deadly stampedes, tent fires and other accidents have several times caused hundreds of deaths.
    And safety is a particular concern for the many thousands of elderly and disabled pilgrims who join the thronging crowds each year.
    With this in mind a group of students at the King Saud University in Riyadh have invented a self-controlled vehicle designed to transport infirm pilgrims between Safa and Marwa, two small hills between which pilgrims walk seven times as part of the Haj ritual.
    The electronic device, called the 'e-chair,' is a wheelchair fitted with controls and sensors which would travel on specially designed tracks and would eliminate the need for volunteers and reduce congestion.
    "The idea was about how I could solve problems of congestion as well as serve a large number of pilgrims and visitors to the Grand Mosque specifically for an important category, and one close to our heart, which is the elderly and the handicapped," said Mohammed al-Dakhail, a recent graduate in Mechanical Engineering and one of the inventors of the 'e-chair'.
    The project consists of 600 e-chairs, and would cost an estimated 25 million riyals (USD 6.67 million) to implement, the students who developed it said.
    "The project was presented for testing and, praise to God, was one of the best projects in the College of Engineering. After we went to the King Institute for Research in a pilgrimage to view the project in its final form, the project, praise to God, was met with acceptance and welcomed by specialists in the study of pilgrimage," said Dakhail.
    The students have been invited to present their idea to the Haj organising Committee who will decide whether future generations of pilgrims will be able to benefit from the new technology.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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