New Delhi: Fifteen thousand CCTV cameras, 1,600 American security personnel — including attack dogs — 1,000 National Security Guard snipers, licence-plate recognition cameras, face-detection cameras, a no-fly zone over Rajpath, with Indian Air Force planes scouring the skies over New Delhi and a radius of 400km for drones are just a few aspects of a mind-boggling security detail during US president Barack Obama’s visit to India.
Six Delhi Metro stations will be shut during the Republic Day parade Monday. Add to this 44,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel who will guard the capital on Republic Day.
Obama, who is in New Delhi on a special invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade Monday, has really thrown many Delhiites into a tizzy.
Usually, the Indian capital is put on a high alert around Republic Day, every year, and some of the most favourite outdoor weekend hot spots such as India Gate are kept under strict surveillance. But what the city is witnessing now to ensure a safe stay for its most high-profile Republic Day guest ever is unprecedented.
From Rajpath to the diplomatic enclaves of Chanakya Puri, from the North and South Blocks to Vigyan Bhavan … New Delhi is under a hawk-eye — literally.
Early Saturday morning, as a thick blanket of smog hung over the city, while being driven down to Connaught Place from Indira Gandhi International Airport, one felt the city bore a spooky look: Snipers and sniffer dogs, metal detectors and surveillance cameras … had all turned Lutyen’s Delhi into a war zone, where suspicion was the norm — not the exception.
And the security detailings were not without their share of ego-hassles and one-upmanships. From its demand to declare the entire stretch of Rajpath a no-fly zone, to trying to browbeat the Indian security agencies into allowing Obama to travel in his custom-built presidential Cadillac — ‘Beast’ — instead of hitching a ride with the Indian president on the latter’s vehicle, agencies from Washington and New Delhi were often at crosshairs.
But not everyone was complaining as the long queue outside Shastri Bhavan Saturday, to procure tickets to the R-Day parade, clearly showed.
A Delhi Police official, who did not want to be named, said camera footage may be shared with the US Secret Service.
Officials said that as part of heightened security arrangements, the no-fly zone for civilian aircraft will extend to a 500km radius of Delhi January 26 and will cover cities such as Agra and Jaipur, and even areas along the border with Pakistan.
The radius of the no-fly zone for earlier Republic Day functions used to be 300km, they said.
A seven-layer security ring will guard the enclosure that would be used by Obama, Mukherjee and Modi.
The enclosure will be bulletproof as the US president will be in an open air setting for over one-and-a-half hours, something unprecedented in his visit to a foreign country, officials said.
Before Obama’s plane lands January 25 at the Delhi airport, the area will be taken over by Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel and US Secret Service agents.
India Gate and Rajpath have already been shut for people and the area is under constant guard by security personnel.
The airspace over the capital will be monitored by special radars, they added.
Security arrangements at ITC Maurya, where Obama will be staying during his three-day visit, are being monitored on a daily basis.
— with inputs from IANS
