Delhi turns into fortress, roads don a deserted look

NEW DELHI:  Amid traffic regulations in view of the G20 summit, major roads leading towards the Lutyens’ Delhi or New Delhi area witnessed a deserted look on Friday as most world leaders landed at the capital. Daily office goers avoided nearly all stretches bordering the New Delhi district, while those engaged in essential services were seen showing their identity proofs to policemen for entering restricted places. 

The Traffic Police, which had long prepared to strictly regulate traffic during the summit days, implemented the Controlled Zone 1 i.e.in the New Delhi district area which has been now completely turned into an impregnable fortress.

Since private and government offices except those essential in nature have been closed for three days starting Friday, roads coming from NCR cities also saw a lesser number of vehicles. Ajay Singh, a Noida resident working with a software company in Gurugram said that he is hesitant to take any route via Delhi. “My company said no to ‘work from home’ hence I have taken leave for Friday. I had no options left as I feel that I cannot cross south Delhi as the traffic restrictions in place may add to congestion.”  

Pravin Kumar, a speech therapist living in Greater Noida, said, “I avoided going to my office in Karol Bagh today as I may face hardships during the commute with the traffic restrictions in place.”

Not just land & air....

It was not just the land and air, the Delhi Police have also secured the river bodies and have heightened security across the Yamuna. Several teams of local police along with the personnel of the paramilitary force were seen patrolling the river on a boat on Friday.

“We have already deployed pickets on the river banks and now we are manually scanning the river through boat patrolling. The whole idea of this exercise is that there is no kind of security breach in the G20Summit,” a senior official said.

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