NEW DELHI:Compared to last years’ security and traffic arrangements, the Barack Obama visit is turning out to be a security nightmare. The Dhaula Kuan road will be chaotic for almost two days. Although, Obama will stay at ITC Maurya, a five-star hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, connecting Gurgaon and beyond, will be virtually shut down. Both carriageways at Sardar Patel Marg leading to the Indira Gandhi International Airport will be out of bounds for passengers. Even on January 27, people from South Delhi will face a harrowing time as Obama’s visit to Siri Fort Auditorium will turn surrounding areas into a no-go zone. All entry and exit points at South Extension, Malviya Nagar, Niti Bagh, Green Park, Malviya Nagar, Khelgaon and Hauz Khas will be sanitised and barricaded to ensure any threat to the US President.
All commercial and heavy vehicular movement across 27 borders areas will be completely stopped. From the night of January 25, only private vehicles will be allowed to enter Delhi; and that too after stringent checks by police at pickets, which are already in place. So anyone planning to enter the highly protected New Delhi zone in a taxi will have to abandon the vehicle at the border. The travellers will have to decide on alternate routes if their destination touches any of the New Delhi areas.
“Forty per cent of nearly 2.5 lakh vehicles which cross Gurgaon and the Delhi expressway everyday will be affected. The entire airport area will be under lockdown and vehicular movement from Dwarka and Delhi Cantt will come to a standstill. All the artillery roads that crosses the US president’s route will be closed till the time he is on the road,” said a Delhi Police source.
At least six hospitals in the heart of the city will be affected because of the complete lockdown. Ram Manohar Lohiya, Lok Nayak Hospital, Lady Harding Hospital, Guru Nanak Eye Hospital, G B Pant Hospital and Maulana Azad Dental Hospital will be out of bounds for the common public. Police officials said the route to these hospitals from the New Delhi areas will be closed, even for ambulances, but people have been provided details of optional access routes in case of any emergency. This will increase reaching time, even for critical cases.
“Roads connecting to Rajpath will be locked down. People can take outer roads like the Mother Teresa Crescent to reach Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and Raj Ghat Road to reach Lok Nayak Hospital,” Additional Commissioner of Police SBS Tyagi said.
Weekend shopping will take a hit as all popular shopping hubs, including Khan Market, Connaught Place, Janpath and Chandni Chowk, will wear a deserted look both on Sunday and Monday as all the main roads to these destinations have been barricaded. However, malls in south and east Delhi will remain open. There will be no ‘Raahgiri’– a popular public event held on Sunday in Connaught Place’s Central Park.
Cinema Halls like Odeon, PVR Plaza and Regal have already been shut down. Tickets are being refunded. Popular eateries in New Delhi areas such as QBA, The Connaught, Vedas and United Coffee House will down their shutters on Sunday. All pubs in Connaught Place and Khan Market will do no business until January 26 evening. Even popular clubs like Chelmsford and Gymkhana will also be closed for members and their guests.
In South Delhi, at INA Market, Lodhi Colony and Nizamuddin, the police have started placing barricades. In East Delhi, travelling from Lakshmi Nagar to ITO or ISBT will be completely impossible as all roads leading to the ITO and ISBT traffic intersection will be blocked. Similarly, roads from Vidhan Sabha to ISBT and Kashmere Gate will be closed down.
“Around 10,000 police officials, including paramilitary forces, have been deputed and deployed especially for security of Republic Day parade route. Apart from that, around 400 traffic police officials have be deployed,” said Tyagi. He also pointed out that around 10,000 local police personnel have been deployed in the outer peripheries which connect to South, East, North and West Delhi. All buses going to Old Delhi Railway Station have been cancelled; however authorities have made some arrangements for New Delhi Railway Station by diverting at least 16 routes, including Kamla Market, Paharganj, Dayal Chowk and Lodhi Road. Buses coming from East Delhi and North Delhi for New Delhi Station have been cancelled. Besides, Kautilya Marg, Kamal Ataturk Marg, Aurangzeb Road, Humayun Road, Subramaniam Bharti Marg, Mathura Road, Bhagwan Dass Road, Feroze Shah Road, Windsor Place, Ashoka Road, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Mother Teresa Crescent and Sardar Patel Marg will be out of bounds for people and only vehicles sporting special labels and bonafide residents of these areas will be allowed to use the roads. Only ambulances will be allowed on Mother Teresa Crescent.
Even after the Republic Day ceremony is over, entry on certain routes which Obama and Modi are expected to take will be restricted. Buses coming from other states or inter-state bus terminals will not be allowed to pass through Lutyens’ Delhi and will be diverted to outer ring roads. Metro Rail commuters too will have to drop any plan to attend the parade. Six Metro stations that fall under the Rajpath area will be shut for a few hours on Monday as part of the security arrangements for the parade that lasts for 107 minutes. Metro stations that will remain closed are Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Patel Chowk, Race Course, Mandi House and Pragati Maidan from 6 AM on January 26 to 12 noon. However, all Metro parking lots will remain closed from 6 AM on January 25 to 2 PM on January 26.
With two weeks left for Delhi to go to vote, each day is precious for campaigners and parties. However, the Delhi election campaign that just began to heat up last week will have to take at least a three-day break starting January 25. During Obama’s stay, campaigning for polls in New Delhi, Delhi Cantt and Jungpura will be affected. According to officials, rallies and road shows are not being permitted in these three areas. However, small meetings can be organised in parks and candidates will be allowed door to door campaigns. A BJP campaigner for New Delhi Constituency said that all three major parties will be affected for three days but since it is a matter of national pride they all are supporting it.
“We have not received any permission for big rallies for next three days and that is why we are going for more direct public interaction. What else can we do?,” BJP campaigner Raghav Pal said.
However, AAP spokesperson Nagendra Sharma said that all big rallies will be cancelled in the New Delhi area keeping the VIP visit in mind.
“We have kept Arvind Kejriwal’s rallies and padyatras in other areas than New Delhi. We had planned them well in advance since the dates of Obama’s visit were already in the public domain,” said Sharma.
The usual security measures deployed for the Republic Day function, including Intelligence surveillance of key buildings, Rajpath, adjoining areas and sensitive localities, have been beefed up massively. Thirty buildings on Parliament Street, 10 buildings on Tughlaq Road, 23 buildings on Tilak Marg and four buildings in Connaught Place were sanitised and locked down by the government on Saturday itself. These buildings are strategically important, because they overlook the Parade route where Obama, Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee will sit in the open in a bulletproof enclosure for 107 minutes. The crisis cell of security agencies will take over the Safdarjung airport to launch any emergency operation if and when required. The usual crowd of sunset watchers at Vijay Chowk after Republic Day celebration will be missing this time due to the heightened security threat. The entire area will remain barricaded as Modi and Obama are scheduled to attend several engagements in the vicinity immediately after the ceremony.
To ensure unimpregnable security, special passes have been issued to government employees who will be working in buildings in the area from January 25 to 27, when the US President is in the city. Only those cleared for access can enter buildings, which include South Block, North Block, Sena Bhawan and others. Delhi Police closed the tallest building of the city, the headquarters of the North and South Delhi municipal corporations at 2 pm on Thursday. The 28-storey Civic Centre was closed from 2 pm on Thursday and will reopen on Friday 2 pm. Delhi police will keep the building closed on February 25 and 26 too. So, most of the government babus have decided to take a day off on Tuesday, as they will find difficult to reach office. Unlike in earlier years, when 30,000 passes were issued, only 19,000 were issued this time.
Over 500 police officials stationed at Rajpath on January 26 were given a two-day training on profiling participants. This is a security practice performed by American security agencies in sensitive locations such as airports, where people are assessed by their behaviour for any possible threat. To avoid the multi agency syndrome, senior security, intelligence and Delhi Police officials have chalked out minute-wise details of Obama’s meetings and Republic Day parade in coordination with the US Secret Service. Key operational planning including mine sweeps, threat identification and close protection during Obama’s public events was finalised in consultation with them. The final Advance Security Liaison (ASL) meeting was held on Saturday to fix Obama’s itinerary, starting from the landing of Air Force One to vehicle route and entry points at the hotel where he will stay.
The security audit of routes, the sweeping of high rise buildings along Obama-Modi routes and Advance Security Liaison meetings with hotel staff, officials of Hyderabad House and Siri Fort staff have been prepared and shared with Secret Service and Indian Security agencies.
The biggest sufferers of the Obama visit will be the capital’s homeless, staying in the 88 night settlers in Central Delhi and on the streets. Sources said that around 30 night shelters will be closed down on Republic Day. Beggars, street vendors, rickshaw pullers and vagrants have been shifted from Central Delhi and New Delhi areas to West and East Delhi locations, far away from the glitzy ceremonies planned in the graceful halls of Lutyens’ Delhi.
NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT ON JAN 26
As many as 143 bus routes will face diversion while over 50 buses have been cancelled on the Republic Day. Although the Delhi Transport Authority has made arrangements for people to reach India Gate, all the bus routes crossing Central and New Delhi areas will be locked down. All Old Delhi Railway Station-bound local and inter-state buses and the ones coming from East Delhi and North Delhi to New Delhi Railway Station have been cancelled.
Air Purifiers for Obama
The US embassy has procured 1,800 high-performance air purifiers to allow President Obama to breathe in lesser polluted air. He will sit in the open for almost two hours at the historic Rajpath as the chief guest of the Republic Day parade. This has put US agencies in a spot of bother keeping Delhi’s status of the world’s most polluted city of the world. However, the Delhi Police has restricted the vehicle movement around the India Gate area in an attempt to control the air pollution level. The US embassy has purchased the mobile air purifiers from Swedish firm Blueair and these purifiers will be installed at various locations during Obama’s visit and even on the embassy premises too. Similar air purifiers were installed across China in 2013 also.