A total of 1,27,198 Bangladeshi pilgrims will perform the holy hajj this year as the cabinet on Monday approved the drafts of the "National Hajj and Umrah Policy-2018" and the "Hajj Package- 2018".
The approval was given in the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the Prime Minister's Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said this while briefing reporters at Bangladesh Secretariat in the afternoon, reports BSS.
Under the Hajj Package-2018, a total of 1,20,000 pilgrims will perform hajj in private management while the number under government management will be 7,198.
In the first package of the government arrangement, a pilgrim will cost Tk 3,97,929 and in the second package the cost will be Tk 3,31,359.
The minimum cost excluding house rent for a pilgrim who would perform Hajj under private arrangement has been fixed at Tk 1,68,277.
The cabinet secretary said all pilgrims will have to carry machine readable passports for performing hajj this year.
A hajj agency could send a highest 300 and minimum 150 pilgrims from Bangladesh, he said adding, an aircraft can carry the pilgrims of three hajj agencies and three Moallems.
The pilgrims under the private management will have to pay money for qurbani (sacrificing animal) through the coupon of Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia.
The cabinet secretary said every person willing to perform hajj will have to make pre-registration through online, which would be synchronised with the central NID database.
Later, they will have to complete registration process to get pilgrim ID, he said, adding that the registration will remain valid for two years.
