India will be celebrating its 72nd Republic Day on Tuesday, January 26 at Rajpath in the national capital, Delhi. For the purpose of security arrangements, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to partially curtail the metro services and shut four stations in the vicinity of Rajpath in the morning. The metro stations to remain closed during the Republic Day parade include Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Patel Chowk and Lok Kalyan Marg.
Timings for boarding or de-boarding are as under:
Central Secretariat: According to the information provided by DMRC via its tweet, the Central Secretariat metro station will be used only for the interchange of passengers between Line2 (Yellow Line) and Line 6 (Violet line) during the function.
Udyog Bhawan: At Udyog Bhawan, the metro trains have been scheduled from morning 8:45 am to 12 pm in the noon.
Lok Kalyan Marg: The metro services at this station will remain closed from 8.45 am to 12 pm during the celebration of the Republic Day.
Patel Chowk: The entry and exit will be closed at this station from 8:45 am to 12 pm on Tuesday.
For the commuters, metro train services will be available at all stations during the Republic Day Parade.
DMRC through its official Twitter handle also informed on Sunday that the parking facilities will remain closed from morning 6 am on January 25 till 2 pm on January 26 at all stations.
This year, the celebration of Republic Day will be a bit different because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Also this time, there will be no chief guest present on the occasion. Earlier, it was said the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accepted the invitation to be the chief guest for the day. But, he later cancelled his visit due to the rapid rise of Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom.
In the year 1952, 1953 and 1966 also, there was no chief guest present during the Republic Day parade. The parade will start at 9:50 am from Vijay Chowk and the wreath-laying function at National War Memorial will take place at 9 am.