In view of the inauguration of the new Parliament building, all entry and exit gates at Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan stations of the Delhi Metro have been closed for security purposes on Sunday.
At 8:30 am, the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation tweeted, saying “As per directions received from the Delhi Metro Rail Police, all entry and exit gates of Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan stations have been closed for passenger movement.”
While the Udyog Bhawan metro station mainly draws passengers who work at Central Delhi government offices, the Central Secretariat one is comparatively busier and sees heavy footfall as it is an interchange facility between Yellow Line and Violet Line.
The new Parliament building, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the on Sunday in the presence of a large number of dignitaries and priests, is located near the Central Secretariat station.
The DMRC said that the gates of these two stations were closed since the start of metro services on Sunday. However, interchange facilities are available at Central Secretariat.
Announcements were being made regularly at these two stations since morning, it said.
Ahead of the inauguration, police issued a traffic advisory that the New Delhi district will be treated as a controlled area and entry of vehicles will be restricted. Besides additional deployment of force, CCTV monitoring is being carried out continuously, the police said.
While around 20 parties have announced a boycott of the ceremony, agitating wrestlers are threatening to hold a protest meeting in front of the new parliament building on Sunday.
According to the traffic advisory, only public transport vehicles, civil service aspirants, bonafide residents, labelled vehicles and emergency vehicles will be allowed to move in the New Delhi area. The Delhi traffic police has urged people to plan their journey accordingly and avoid the New Delhi district from 5:30 am to 3 pm.
(With PTI inputs)
