• A high-level committee is exploring reviving the option of sending pilgrims via sea route from Mumbai to Jeddah next year onwards
• The practice of ferrying devotees by waterways was stopped from 1995 on account of MV Akbari, the ship which would transport pilgrims, growing old
File photo.
NEW DELHI: (PTI) After a gap of nearly a quarter-century, the air at the Mumbai port may once again be filled with chanting of 'Talbiyah', a prayer Muslims invoke before they set off for or during the annual Haj pilgrimage.
A high-level committee, formed by the government to frame the Haj Policy, 2018, is exploring reviving the option of sending pilgrims via sea route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia next year onwards.
The practice of ferrying devotees between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped from 1995 on account of MV Akbari, the ship which would transport pilgrims, growing old, a source in the Union minority affairs ministry said.