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The Delhi and Noida police had planned a mammoth route plan of almost 27 km for Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which could have become a nightmare for peak-hour travellers, but Special Protection Group sent a last-minute change of plan to all concerned security agencies
As sceptics speculated whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken the metro route with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to inaugurate the world's largest mobile phones factory in Noida for a photo-op or for security reasons, My Nation was informed by the police that security agencies were geared up for road movement. However, our sources said, nearly an hour before the prime minister’s scheduled departure to Noida, SPG informed the agencies that Modi and the South Korean President would now travel by Delhi Metro and board it from the Mandi House station.
The security agencies were also asked not to evacuate metro stations and to allow normal train movement. Though this plan delayed metro by 10 minutes because of security reasons, neither DND nor the Noida Expressway faced any unnatural traffic jam even during peak hour. With the leaders on board, the metro took 28 minutes, which is its usual travel time from Mandi House to Botanical Garden.
The Noida Police had planned diversions on major roads during peak hours 4 pm to 7 pm. It would have choked NH-24 as well. The police had also planned to stop traffic on both carriageways of DND, which would have widened the impact of the jam.
PM Modi had reportedly told SPG to re-structure security on his route in metro cities after he witnessed a massive traffic jam in front of the newly inaugurated BJP headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg in Delhi on 8 April.
An official communication between agencies said: “On April 8, during the PM’s function at BJP headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Marg…SPG conveyed that the PM had observed that there was no movement of traffic on the opposite side of carriageway during his journeys in Delhi. The [SPG] has further conveyed that PM has desired that the vehicular traffic on opposite carriageway should not be stopped and there should not be any inconvenience to the general public in this regard.”
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