G20 Summit: Security checks intensified across Delhi

NEW DELHI: Security checks were intensified across the national capital on Saturday morning ahead of the two-day meeting of top world leaders scheduled to begin later in the day.

A multi-layer security cover has been put in place around the Pragati Maidan area in central Delhi where the summit is taking place while vehicle checking in New Delhi and bordering areas has been intensified.

Dog squad and mounted morchas with binoculars have also been deployed to keep a hawk's eye on the security arrangements at the venue and the entire New Delhi district.

The New Delhi district has been heavily barricaded with police checking all vehicles and IDs of those entering.

New Delhi district has been designated as Controlled Zone-I from Friday 5 am till Sunday 11.59 pm due to the summit.

Police have urged people not to visit India Gate and Kartavya Path for walking or cycling. While the movement of vehicles is being regulated in the area, ambulances have been permitted to operate.

Officials said over 50,000 personnel along with dog squads and mounted police have been deployed for the summit.

At the exit point of metro stations in New Delhi, commuters’ IDs were being checked.

Online delivery of services, except for medicines, has been barred in the New Delhi area, officials said. Housekeeping, catering and waste management for hotels, and hospitals would be allowed after verification.

According to Raj Niwas officials, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena will remain in constant touch with the city police commissioner and monitor the security situation for the mega-event.

At the control room, senior police officers are monitoring the round-the-clock live visuals from nearly 5,000 CCTV cameras installed in different parts of the city.

Essential services such as postal and medical services, and sample collections by pathological labs are being allowed throughout Delhi.

Metro services started at 4 am from the terminal stations on all lines of the network. Services will remain operational at all stations except the Supreme Court station, where boarding and deboarding will not be permitted from 5 am on Saturday till 11 pm on Sunday.

Parking facilities at the Supreme Court, Patel Chowk and RK Ashram Marg metro stations will remain closed between 4 am on September 8 and September 11 at noon.

Police have urged people to use metro services as much as possible saying movement of buses, auto-rickshaws, taxis and goods vehicles would be restricted.

Police have advised people to use the navigation app 'Mapmyindia' to get around the city and get real-time traffic updates on the 'G20 Virtual Help Desk'.

The entire area inside the Ring Road (Mahatma Gandhi Marg) has been designated as a "regulated zone", which means that only bonafide residents, authorised vehicles, emergency vehicles, and those travelling to the airport, Old Delhi and New Delhi Railway Stations will be allowed to ply on the road network beyond the Ring Road towards New Delhi district.

Nearly 16 roads and junctions will be treated as "Controlled Zone II" till 2 pm on Sunday. These include W-Point, A-Point, DDU Marg, Vikas Marg (till Noida Link Road-Pusta Road), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Delhi Gate, among others.

Police have requested people to avoid travelling to places within the "regulated" and "controlled zones". It has listed alternative routes to take in case travel is unavoidable.

All types of goods vehicles, commercial vehicles, interstate buses and buses of the Delhi Transport Corporation and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System will not be allowed to ply on the Mathura Road (beyond Ashram Chowk), Bhairon Road, Purana Quila Road and inside the Pragati Maidan Tunnel from September 8 midnight till 11.59 pm on September 10.

Interstate buses coming through the Ghazipur border terminate at ISBT Sarai Kale Khan, while those from the Apsara border, Chilla border, Badarpur border, Tikei border and Singhu border will terminate at ISBT Kashmere Gate, ISBT Sarai Kale Khan, Ashram Chowk, Peeragarhi Chowk and Mukarba Chowk, respectively.

The two-day G20 Summit begins on Saturday and it will be attended by more than 30 heads of state and top officials from the European Union and invited guest countries and 14 heads of international organisations.