At 2 pm, DMRC stated that exit gates of Khan Market, Supreme Court, Central Secretariat and Mandi House metro stations are closed. Keeping in mind that thousands of people throng India Gate every year to welcome the new year, the Delhi Police Friday upped deployment in the area. Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed the exit gates of four Metro stations near India Gate for a few hours.
At 2 pm, DMRC stated that exit gates of Khan Market, Supreme Court, Central Secretariat and Mandi House metro stations are closed. At 4 pm, normal services were resumed. Around 4.30 pm, exit gates of Rajiv Chowk Metro station were closed for three hours as Connaught Place saw a surge in the number of visitors.
Joint CP (Traffic) Manish Kumar Agrawal said that 300 police personnel were deployed in the New Delhi area on January 1 as massive crowds were expected to show up at India Gate and the Bangla Sahib gurdwara. A senior police officer said that “one-third of the number of police personnel are deployed in the district otherwise.”
He added, “The crowd at the gurdwara was as expected and just like the last few years. At India Gate, however, this year the number was considerably less than the last few years. No traffic diversions were needed to manage India Gate crowds.”
DCP (New Delhi) Dr Eish Singhal too said that the crowd at India Gate was less than the last few years.
“There has been a floating population at India Gate of 5,000 at any given point of time today. One company of the Delhi Police was deployed there,” said Singhal.
Agrawal said emphasis was put on regularisation of traffic and towing away of vehicles parked in unauthorised spots.
As per figures from the Delhi Police, on Thursday 221 vehicles were towed, 706 people were challaned for unauthorised parking, 26 people were booked for drink driving and 174 for dangerous driving. Agrawal said that “in comparison to the last few years, New Year’s eve traffic violations were fewer”.
As per data of violations shared by Delhi Police, there were 203 drink driving cases on December 31, 2019 and 274 such cases on December 31, 2018.