RIYADH, Dec 8: The Jamraat bridge, site for the ritual of Satan stoning during Haj, has been expanded further. With the completion of the third phase of the high-tech Jamrat bridge project in Mina, the bridge can now accommodate up to 360,000 pilgrims per hour.

“The 4.2-billion riyal facility third phase has been completed and is now ready for pilgrims to use for stoning the devil,” Habeeb Zainul Abideen, the Saudi deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs told Arab News.

The stoning area has been the site of stampedes, year after year, killing a number of pilgrims. The expansion is expected to make the possibility of deaths due to stampede much remote.

During last year’s Haj, pilgrims used the structure in Mina for the first time. The first phase increased the bridge’s capacity to 250,000 pilgrims an hour. The second level of the bridge, which was completed this year, would receive pilgrims coming from the Makkah side after performing tawaf al-ifada — the obligatory circumambulation of the Kaaba.

The new system would ensure the smooth flow of pilgrims in Mina while coming to and from the Jamraat. The newly established three one-way roads near Jamraat would help transport 150,000 to 200,000 pilgrims per hour. These new roads, which are linked to the second floor of the bridge, will reduce pressure on the ground floor and the first floor.

The ground floor and first floor have an average width of 70 meters, an engineer working for the project said, adding that the area near the pillars stoned in the Jamraat ritual was 80 meters wide.