In a move to make the India Gate and its premises clutter-free and more visitor-friendly,vendors and autorickshaws have been denied entry on its radials after 7 pm. The arrangement came into force on Friday,following orders from Neeraj Kumar who took over as the Delhi Police Commissioner recently. The Traffic police has stationed special teams to enforce traffic rules on C-hexagon along with streamlining traffic flow. According to the new arrangement,the India Gate C-hexagon will now be a no stopping,no parking zone after 7 pm,so that the entire carriageway is available for free and smooth traffic flow. No vehicle will now be allowed to halt on the radials,said Traffic police. Following the Commissioners orders,Traffic police identified major elements which was making the area look cluttered. More than 1,000 people visit India Gate every day during this weather. As there is limited parking space,there is a spill-over on C-hexagon making the area look cluttered. Now,we have arranged space for parking over 900 vehicles along with extra parking space along the water channels of Rajpath, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg. Arrangements for parking have been made along radial roads too including Shahjahan Road,Kasturba Gandhi Marg,Zakir Hussain Marg and Tilak Marg. A crane has been stationed at C-hexagon to tow away vehicles parked on the roadside. Autorickshaw drivers have also been ordered not to park their vehicles on the stretch. The police have allotted special TSR parking on all six radials. We have created an additional parking space for autos on all six radials. Visitors will not have to go to the main road to board an auto anymore, said Garg. In order to check problem of encroachment by street vendors and hawkers,they have been ordered to vacate the area after 7 pm. Three to four teams of Traffic personnel four members in each team have been deployed to enforce the order. It was also noticed that many pedestrians do not stop at pedestrian signals. They do not wait for their turn to cross the road because of which vehicles have to halt and it leads to obstructed movement of traffic. We have deployed two officials each on every signal to help pedestrians, a Traffic police officer said.
