Rajpath, India Gate and C-Hexagon, the venue for the Republic Day parade, which were under thick security blanket with restricted entry throughout the day, turned into a picnic spot for revellers by the afternoon.
Traffic snarls were witnessed near Rajpath and India Gate on Sunday as thousands of people took advantage of the pleasant weather and public holiday and flocked there to celebrate the 71st Republic Day.
Entry and exit gates of five metro stations — Khan Market, Supreme Court, Udyog Bhawan, Central Secretariat and Mandi House — were closed around 6 p.m. to ease rush of passengers.
DCP (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said that around 50,000 people had gathered at India Gate resulting in traffic jams.
As a precautionary measure, metro stations were closed for some time.
A traffic police personnel deployed at C-Hexagon said that 60 of them were deployed there to regulate traffic. DCP (traffic) Pushpendra Kumar said that a team of traffic police personnel had been deployed at India Gate and near Rajpath. The traffic was slow but moving, he said.
