Dhaka: A total of 1,27, 198 Bangladeshis will perform hajj this year as the cabinet on Monday approved the drafts of the ‘National Hajj and Umrah Policy-2017’ and the ‘Hajj Package- 2017’.

The approval was given at the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed reporters after the meeting.

Under the Hajj Package-2017, he said, a total of 1,17,198 pilgrims will perform hajj under private management while 10,000 under government management.

In the first package of the government arrangement, a pilgrim will have to pay Tk 3,81,508, while the cost will be Tk 3,19,355 in the second package.

The minimum cost of a pilgrim who will perform hajj under private arrangement has been fixed at Tk 1,56,537.71.

The cabinet secretary said all the pilgrims will have to carry machine readable passports for performing hajj this year.

He said a hajj agency could send highest 300 and minimum 150 pilgrims from Bangladesh, adding that an aircraft can carry the pilgrims of three hajj agencies and three moallems (Guides).

The pilgrims under the private management will have to pay for qurbnani (sacrificing animals) through Islamic Development Bank coupons in Saudi Arabia.

"No one will be allowed to buy sacrificial animal directly as the bank itself will make arrangements for qurbani," Alam said.

The cabinet secretary said the pilgrims under both the government and the private arrangements must rent houses on common spaces in Makkah and Madina.

The pilgrims, he said, will have to collect foods through catering companies to be appointed by the Saudi government. They will not be allowed to cook food on their own arrangement, the cabinet secretary said.

Alam said the pilgrims under the private arrangement will have to open bank accounts in Saudi Arabia and they will have to pay hotel and house rents online.