Republic Day LIVE Updates: SWAT and Snipers Keep a Watch as Delhi Hosts 70th R-Day Parade

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets people on Republic day.

Happy Republic Day to all fellow Indians.

सभी देशवासियों को #गणतंत्रदिवस की शुभकामनाएं।

जय हिन्द!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 26, 2019

The traffic police have deployed 3,000 personnel to manage route diversions and ensure a safe and secure passage for the visiting dignitaries.

Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan hoists tricolour in Vijayawada.

Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan hoists tricolour on #RepublicDay2019 in Vijayawada. pic.twitter.com/8mkUvNPurP

— ANI (@ANI) January 26, 2019

Crowds gather for the RepublicDay parade at Rajpath in Delhi. 

Crowds gather for the #RepublicDay2019 parade at Rajpath in Delhi. President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa is the chief guest at the parade today. pic.twitter.com/dZCOKSXTiY

— ANI (@ANI) January 26, 2019

For two stations neighbouring Rajpath, Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan, entry and exit facilities will not be available from 6.00 am to 12.00 pm.

Delhi Metro Timings |  For two stations neighbouring Rajpath, Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan, entry and exit facilities will not be available from 6.00 am to 12.00 pm. Entry and exit at Patel Chowk and Lok Kalyan Marg metro stations will be closed from 8.45 am to 12.00 pm. All metro parking lots have been closed till 2.00 pm on Saturday. 

The police are also using counter-drone technology to thwart any attack or identify any suspicious flying object. The traffic police also deployed 3,000 personnel to manage route diversions and ensure a safe and secure passage for the visiting dignitaries. Elaborate traffic arrangements and restrictions were put in place in Delhi for smooth conduct of the Republic Day parade between Vijay Chowk and Red Fort Grounds.

Republic Day Traffic Advisory | No vehicle will be allowed on Rajpath, from Vijay Chowk to India Gate, till the parade is over. No cross traffic will be allowed on Rajpath at Rafi Marg, Janpath, Man Singh Road till the parade is over and C'-Hexagon-India Gate will be closed for vehicular movement from 2 am today till the parade crosses Tilak Marg. No vehicular movement will be allowed on Tilak Marg, BSZ Marg and Subhash Marg in both directions from 10 am onwards.

Metro services will be available for commuters at all stations on Republic Day, but there will be no boarding and de-boarding at Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan stations from 5 am till 12 noon. Boarding and de-boarding will not be allowed between 8.45am to 12 noon at Lok Kalyan Marg (Race Course) and Patel Chowk metro stations, they said. The parade will start at 9.50am from Vijay Chowk and pass through Rajpath, Tilak Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar (BSZ) Marg, Netaji Subhash Marg and proceed for the Red Fort.

 The side panel showcases, how Indian Railways has spearheaded Mahatma Gandhi's vision of swadeshi as shown in Indian Railways' journey starting from the era of steam engines, to indigenously made and state-of-the-art 'Train-18', an engineless train made under Make in India' project of the Government of India.

The front portion of tableau will showcase a steam engine on whose top is perched a bust of Mahatma Gandhi which is similar to the bust installed in June 2018 at the Pietermaritzburg railway station of South Africa. The first coach of middle portion shows the young Gandhi being thrown out from the compartment in South Africa, the second coach of the middle portion depicts Gandhiji with his wife, Kasturba Gandhi, meeting people at railway station as Gandhiji travelled in third class compartment across the length and breadth of India by train after his return to India from South Africa in 1915. In the rear portion of the tableau, Mahatma Gandhi is shown collecting donations for the 'Harijan Fund' during his train journey to Bengal, Assam and South India, carried out between November 1945 and January 1946.

After a gap of three years, the railways is all set to showcase its tableau in the Republic Day parade depicting the "transformation of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi" and highlight the yet-to-be-launched bullet train and Train 18. The tableau on the theme "Mohan se Mahatma" will depict the "transformation of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi" highlighting the incident in 1893, when the young Mohandas was thrown out of a "European only" compartment at Pietermaritzburg railway station in South Africa which acted as a catalyst for him to practice 'Satyagrah'.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. He will be the second South African president to be invited to the event as the chief guest. Former South African president Nelson Mandela was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in 1995. Multi-layer security arrangements are in place. Around 25,000 police personnel, including traffic officials, have been deployed. CCTV cameras and face-recognition cameras have also been installed at Rajpath.

SWAT women commandos, mobile hit teams, snipers are among the varied layers of security under which the national capital has been placed for the 70^th Republic Day celebrations. Elaborate measures, including deployment of anti-aircraft guns, have been put in place to secure the airspace.