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New Year's Eve: What You Need To Know About Traffic Restrictions, Security In Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai

Here’s what you need to know if you will be out and about in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai tonight.
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Massive deployment of police and traffic restrictions have been put in place across most major cities in India ahead of New Year’s Eve. Thousands of revellers are likely to take to the streets to celebrate the arrival of 2019.

Here’s what you need to know if you will be out and about in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai tonight.

Delhi

PTI reported that 15,000 police personnel will be deployed across the national capital today. A special picket team including traffic police, PCR and womEn personal will be deployed at various locations to ensure that no untoward incident happens.

Women police personnel will also be deployed in plain clothes at various strategic locations across the city, an officer told PTI.

Rajiv Chowk, one of the busiest stations of the Delhi Metro, will not be open to commuters from 9 pm onwards.

The police said, “Interchange facility between Line-2 (HUDA City Centre Samaypur Badli) and Line-3/4 (Dwarka Sec-21 NOIDA City Centre/Vaishali) will continue as usual at the Rajiv Chowk metro station till the end of services. Services at all other metro corridors and stations will continue normally.”

Major traffic restrictions will also be put in place in Delhi. All kinds of vehicles will be restricted from 8.00 pm onwards at Connaught Place till the celebrations conclude.

Vehicles will not be allowed to proceed towards Connaught Place beyond the roundabout of Mandi House, roundabout of Bengali Market, north foot of Ranjit Singh Flyover, Minto Road, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg crossing, Chelmsford Road near Munje Chowk (New Delhi Railway Station), RK Ashram Marg-Chitragupta, round about of Gole Market, round about of GPO, Patel Chowk, Kasturba Gandhi Road-Ferozshah Road Crossing, Jai Singh Road-Bangla Sahib Lane and the roundabout of Windsor Place, the statement said.

According to the traffic advisory, motorists can park their vehicles at only specific places in the vicinity of Connaught Place, which includes certain locations near Gole Dak Khana, Patel Chowk on Rakab Ganj Road behind AIR, near Mandi House on Copernicus Marg upto Baroda house, near Minto Road on DD Upadhaya Marg and Press Road area, Panchkuian Road on RK Ashram Marg, Chitragupta Road and Basant Road towards Paharganj, KG Marg near Ferozshah Road or KG Marg to ‘C’ Hexagon and near Windsor Place.

Alternative routes have been arranged for commuters travelling to New Delhi railway station. However, routes to Old Delhi railway station will not be affected, it said.

Special traffic arrangements have also been made at Saket, Greater Kailash, Lajpat Nagar, New Friends Colony, Hauz Khas, Defence Colony, Vasant Vihar, RK Puram, Nehru Place, Dwarka, Palam Airport, Rajouri Garden, Ashok Vihar, Model Town and Mayur Vihar.

The police has advised motorists to use alternative routes available for North South directions which includes Ring Road from ISBT to Ashram or via Delhi Gate, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Mathura Road to reach Ashram and via vice-versa or via ISBT, Rani Jhansi Marg, Panchkuian Road, Mandir Marg, Park Street, Mother Teresa Crescent Road and beyond or via Rani Jhansi Marg, Punchkuyan Road, Hanuman Murti and Ring Road.

Mumbai

Hotels, bars and pubs in Mumbai can remain open till 5am on 1 January for New Year celebrations with prior permission from local police stations, a senior official said Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Singe told PTI that an order issued by the Maharashtra government’s Excise department has allowed all restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs in Mumbai to remain open till 1.30am on January 1.

“However, they will be allowed to remain open till 5am if they have prior permission from their local police stations,” Singe, who is also the Mumbai police’s spokesperson, said.

The city police’s order comes days after Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to let legal establishments remain open 24X7 in metro cities.

Hindustan Times reported that around 50,000 policemen, including the state reserve police force and riot control police, will be on Mumbai’s streets until the new year breaks.

The report quoted a police official as saying that people could call 022-24939717 to lodge complaints.

Bengaluru

In Bengaluru, people can party till 2 am this New Year’s eve. News18 reported that the city got an hour’s extension from the regular 1 am deadline.

This comes even as Bajrang Dal activists, who claim these celebrations are against Indian culture, warned party goers and even asked women to stay away from parties.

The News Minute reported that the Excise Department will issue NOCs for some establishments where the 2 am extension will apply, but that otherwise, alcohol stores will be shut by 10:30 pm.

Reports say that two of Bengaluru’s favourite destination for revellers, Nandi hills and Muthathi will be closed. The ban will be from 4 pm on 31 December to 8 am on 1 January.

The Hindu reported that train services in the Purple Line of the metro, between Indiranagar and M.G. Road, that were supposed to be restored on Monday will be restored only on 1 January.

The News Minute report says that 12,000 police personnel, including 250 women and 2,000 traffic police will be deployed in the city.

The strict measures, the report said, were to avoid a repeat of the “mass molestation” that had happened in the city’s busy Brigade Road on 31 December 2016.

Several women had said that they were groped, pushed and physically assaulted and had complained of a “stampede-like” situation.

Chennai

To have an “incident-free” New Year’s Eve, Chennai has not extended the normal deadline for bars and pubs. So unfortunately for party goers, everything will shut by 1 am.

Not just that, places with 12 hour liquor licenses can only serve alcohol till midnight, while those with 24 hour licenses can do so till 1 am.

Additional Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Agarwal told The Hindu, “Organisers of festivities should obtain proper permission, follow all safety requirements and install CCTV units to cover all areas. We re-emphasised the need to install CCTV units at all entry and exit points, even on roads leading from the premises and specifically in the bar area.”

The Times of India reported that the police will implement traffic diversions on the two big beaches in Chennai — Marina Beach and Elliots beach.

The report said in Besant Nagar Elliots Beach vehicles will not be allowed after 8 pm near the beach on 6th Avenue.

Near Marina Beach, all the entries to the Foreshore Estate Road will be barricaded.

(With inputs from PTI)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.