Dubai: Dubai Municipality has sent a batch of 138 workers on Umrah with the approval of Director-General Dawood Al Hajiri.

The workers were chosen by their respective departments on the basis of their excellent performance in their duties, the civic body said in a press release on Wednesday.

Marwan Bin Bayat Al Falasi, director of Human Resources Department, said the municipality Umrah group, which left for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, was accompanied by an imam from a mosque for providing the workers with religious awareness and a guide from the municipality as the workers’ accommodation supervisor.

The trip will cover five days and the workers will visit Madinah and then go to Makkah to perform Umrah.

Al Falasi said the municipality bears the full expense of the Umrah trip as it takes care of each worker’s ticket, accommodation and food during the pilgrimage, in addition to giving pocket money for their personal needs. He added that there has been an increase of 40 per cent from last year in the number of workers chosen for performing Umrah.

“All pilgrims were given awareness lectures and introduced to the rules and customs of Umrah and briefed on the importance of maintaining the reputation of the municipality as well as keeping good conduct and compliance with all applicable laws in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said.