Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Friday commended the Government of Saudi Arabia for their annual cooperation and dispatch in the acquisition of visas for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.
He hoped such collaboration would be extended to the pilgrims in their stay in Mecca, to enable them to perform a successful hajj.
Vice President Mahama was inaugurating the Hajj village at the El-Wak stadium and formally addressed the first batch of 266 pilgrims who are leaving Accra to the Holy land on Friday evening.
This year,a total of 4,300 pilgrims have acquired visas to travel to Mecca as compared to 2,500 that visited the Holy land last year.
The Vice President said the smooth acquisition of visas formed part of the Government�s Better Ghana Agenda and gave assurance that more efforts would be made to meet all deadlines and to "push the annual hustle and struggles to acquire visas into the dustbin of history".
He advised the pilgrims to conduct themselves well in Mecca by adhering to the rules and regulations of the land and cooperate with pilgrims from other countries.
Mr Fennec Okyere, Project Manager of Zoomlion Company Limited, promised that they would continue to support the Hajj Board to churn out better conditions and services at the Hajj Village.
He said this year, the company contributed to the comfort of the pilgrims by installing air-conditioned tents, paved the surrondings and carried out all the electrical installations and hoped to step up their support in subsequent years.
Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, Member of Parliament for Abokobi-Madina and a member of the National Hajj Board, commended government for facilitating the activities of the pilgrims and promised that they would live in peace with others in Mecca.
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