February 13 2016, 10.50 AM IST || Pocket News Alert
The new Muscat International Airport (MIA), currently under development in Oman, will reportedly have 24 prayer rooms for men and women.
Hindus are urging Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC), responsible for the management and operation of all Oman airports including MIA, for a designated “Hindu Prayer Room” out of the reported 24-prayer rooms in the new MIA, whose construction work is expected to finish by year-end.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that as considerable number of Hindu passengers used MIA; it would be nice if they had a quiet facility at the upcoming new MIA where they could pray/meditate/worship and perform religious services.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged OAMC Board Chairman Dr. Juma bin Ali Al-Juma and CEO Aimen Ahmed Al Hosni to work in this direction as an issue of fairness and equality in customer service. He or other Hindu scholars would be glad to help, if asked, regarding the structure of “Hindu Prayer Room”.
Hindus would appreciate OAMC if this “Hindu Prayer Room” at the new MIA had murtis (statues) of popular deities, copies of sacred scriptures, a traditional bell and recorded devotional music; Rajan Zed noted.
Prayer/worship to God was highly important in Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents; and it would be great to have “Hindu Prayer Room” at new MIA so that Hindu passengers did not miss their daily worship rituals/rites while travelling through it; which might include recitation of texts, repetition of mantras and dhayan (meditation), Zed added.
According to reports, when completed, the new MIA will have the capacity to handle 12-million passengers per annum, besides world’s largest aircraft. The passenger terminals are being designed using "state of the art" technology. Further planned expansions will ultimately boost its capacity to 48-million passengers per annum. It will include a 90-room hotel with a sports club, seven medical clinics and 149 elevators of various sizes.
Mission Statement of OAMC, owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman, includes “fostering a culture of innovation”. Airport history of Oman goes back to 1929.
