SAUDI ARABIA USES AI, DRONES, THOUSANDS OF CAMERAS TO ENSURE SAFETY OF HAJJ PILGRIMS
By: Sefiu Ajape
Saudi authorities are working tirelessly around the clock, relying on maps, screens, and vast amounts of data, to manage the massive influx of pilgrims during the Hajj through the use of advanced artificial intelligence.
AI technology has become crucial in analyzing footage from more than 15,000 surveillance cameras installed across Mecca and surrounding areas. These systems are programmed to detect unusual crowd patterns and anticipate potential bottlenecks, helping to prevent dangerous stampedes that have marred past pilgrimages.
Additionally, the software supports the coordination of over 20,000 buses tasked with transporting pilgrims between key holy sites during the annual religious event.
All of this is part of Saudi Arabia’s growing tech arsenal as the country welcomes 1.4 million pilgrims from around the world for one of the largest religious gatherings globally.
“In our traffic control room, we use specialised cameras that have AI layers to analyse movements, crowded areas” and predict behaviours, said Mohamed Nazier, chief executive officer for the General Transport Centre at the Royal Commission for Mecca.
The centre has a main control room in Mecca filled with screens and maps, where staff use high-tech tools including AI for round-the-clock monitoring.
About a dozen staff members sit in rows before desktop computers with a large display at the front, zooming in on crowd movements around the holy sites.
On hillsides nearby, cameras that resemble little white robots film buildings, roads and pathways along the hajj route, which winds more than 20 kilometres (12 miles) between Mecca and Mount Arafat.
Nazier said the constant monitoring is aimed at averting traffic collisions with pedestrians on crowded routes while also making sure there are buses available to minimize walking time in the desert heat.
– ‘Our eye on the ground’ –
It is a decade since the hajj suffered its worst disaster, a stampede that killed up to 2,300 people during the “stoning of the devil” ritual.
Hundreds also died in stampedes in 2006, 1998 and 1994.
In 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were trampled to death or asphyxiated when a tunnel ventilation system failed.
With its cutting-edge technology, “the control room is our eye on the ground,” said Mohammed al-Qarni, who oversees the hajj and the year-round umrah pilgrimage at the transport centre.
Artificial intelligence helps to determine “the flow on the (roads to the holy sites), and detects emergency situations even before they occur”, he told AFP, adding that the technology can help assess the number of people in a single place.
