Heavy traffic, snarls expected in Delhi for 3 days

Major roads in the city, especially in east, south and southwest Delhi, are expected to witness severe traffic snarls for the next three days in view of the Art of Living’s World Culture Festival, an event hosted by Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and more than 20,000 weddings scheduled in the city on Friday. Around 1,700 traffic personnel have been deployed.

The roads expected to experience heavy traffic include the Ring Road in South Delhi, Noida Link Road, NH-24, areas near Akshardham, Mayur Vihar, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Ashram Chowk, Aurobindo Marg, Mahipalpur Chowk and Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. Congestion on these roads is expected between 12 noon and 11 pm.

“For an event by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, organised from March 11 to 13 in Fatehpur Beri, traffic will be heavy near Bhati Mines, Andheria More, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, especially the stretch between Lado Sarai and Khanpur, and the road near IIT-Delhi,” a senior official said.

In view of the large number of weddings scheduled on Friday, special arrangements will be made near Ashram Chowk and other South Delhi areas, including Mehrauli and Chhattarpur.

Senior officials of the Delhi police inspected the venue of the World Culture Festival on Friday. The three-day event will kick-off on Friday. The police officers held a meeting with other senior officials over security arrangements and discussed other arrangements with police personnel deployed at the event for security.

During the meeting, security arrangements for the event were heightened with all 11 police districts and several specialised units roped in amidst an uncertainty regarding the total footfall for the three-day event.

The traffic police has also charted out a plan to make sure that arterial roads in the national capital are not clogged during the event. Senior police officials inspected the venue and prepared a status report that was submitted to a joint secretary-rank official incharge of supervising the security arrangements, a senior official said.

While elaborating traffic arrangements during the event, special commissioner (traffic) Muktesh Chandra said that lakhs of people are expected to come for the event. All 10,000 vehicles with passes will be allowed to park their cars.

“We have requested the organisers to make another parking space at Bhairav Mandir and Rajghat and provide shuttle buses on this route. We will be issuing traffic routes in the advisory, it will be published in newspapers on Friday. The Noida link road traffic might be diverted as per need. DND will be open. Since 10,000 more vehicles will be on this route so slow traffic is expected. We have already informed Noida traffic police for further cooperation,” said Mr Chandra.

A lack of direction boards, no fencing on the path leading to the venue, especially from Gates No. 10 and 11, which are to be opened for general public, and inadequate CCTV cameras are some of the shortcomings listed in the status report, the official said, adding these matters have been communicated to the organisers.

The report contains dozens of photographs of the site for the event on the Yamuna floodplains and also highlights the absence of fencing and barricading on the pontoon bridges (floating bridges) constructed there despite several reminders to the organisers, the senior official said.

A meeting chaired by the special commissioner of police (law & order) was held at the venue on Thursday and security for the event was further stepped up. Around 6,000 personnel from all 11 districts of the Delhi police and its specialised units like the economic offences wing (EOW) and special cell will be deployed at the World Culture Festival.

A special police control room would also be set up to ensure round-the-clock monitoring. At least 1,500 officials along with a team of Eagle commandos will be present at the venue. Another 500 will be pressed into service in and outside the hotels where the dignitaries, guests and artists will stay.

Meanwhile, the Noida police said that traffic constables will be deployed adequately on all Noida-Delhi borders and mainly at Chilla border. An advisory will be issued for route diversions for the commuters also.

“We are planning to divert Chilla route traffic towards DND flyways and via Sarita Vihar or Kalindi Kunj. Because we expect Chilla border will be completely choked by visitors. We are trying our best to inform people about route diversions and advisory to avoid Chilla and take other remaining border points,” said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gautam Budh Nagar, Kiran Sivakumar.