New Delhi Dec 30 PTI Long queues of people were seen outside various Delhi Metro stations for the second consecutive day on Thursday after the imposition of fresh curbs by authorities to check the spread of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the national capitalMeanwhile anticipating a huge rush of commuters on the New Years Eve Delhi Metro authorities have decided that exit from the Rajiv Chowk metro station will not be allowed after 9 pm on FridayHowever with new Covid restrictions and a night curfew in place from 10 pm onwards in Delhi amid a scare of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus the crowd is likely to be smallEvery year revellers gather at Connaught Place the heart of New Delhi adjacent to the Rajiv Chowk metro station to ring in the new yearTo ease overcrowding on New Years Eve 31st December 2021 exit from Rajiv Chowk metro station will not be allowed from 9 pm onwards However entry of passengers will be allowed till the departure of the last train from the station Commuters are requested to plan their journey accordingly the DMRC said in a statement on ThursdayA yellow alert under the Graded Response Action Plan GRAP was sounded by the DDMA on Tuesday which entails the running of DTC buses and metro trains with 50 per cent seating capacity and no provision for standing for commutersFor the second consecutive day since the restrictions came into force the queues were seen getting longer at some of the stations in the morning hours when metro services are used by a large number of office-goers officials said adding that they are doing theirs best to ensure compliance of the Covid normsHuge queues of commuters were seen outside the Laxmi Nagar and Akshardham stations among other station on Wednesday Many had taken to Facebook and Twitter to share pictures of queues outside metro stationsMeanwhile a group of people blocked the MB Road and damaged a few DTC buses on Thursday morning after not being allowed to board a bus that had exceeded the permissible passenger-carrying capacityPolice used mild force to disperse the crowd and five people were detained officials saidSources said as offices are open and not many can afford a private car or other means of transportation every day they are bound to use public transport and such queues will be seen if the 50 per cent seating capacity rule is in placeDelhi resident Rameen Khan who goes to his office in Gurgaon by metro said there was a massive queue at the stationIn a statement on Thursday evening DMRC said its permissible carrying capacity had drastically got reduced from 2400 to 200 for an eight-coach trainAn eight-coach metro train can carry about 2400 passengers with approximately 50 seating passengers and 250 standing passengers in every coach With the present restrictions of 50 per cent seating and no standing provision each coach can now accommodate only about 25 passengers it saidTherefore an eight-coach train can now accommodate approximately 200 passengers only This is less than 10 per cent of a trains normal carrying capacity the DMRC saidTherefore travel only if absolutely essential Also keep extra time in your commute by the metro as entry has to be regulated to ensure compliance with the guidelines which is resulting in queues outside stations a senior DMRC official saidOn Wednesday the DMRC had said as part of the intensified measures for curbing the spread of COVID-19 15 flying squads were deployed across the Delhi Metro network to ensure that the Covid safety protocols are strictly adhered to by the passengers inside the trains and on the DMRC premisesThe frequency of checking drives is also being increased to ensure strict adherence to the guidelines and offenders are also being penalised on the spot a senior official had saidThe DMRC networks current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations including the Noida-Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro GurgaonIndia saw the highest single-day rise of 180 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus taking the tally of such cases to 961 in the country according to the Union health ministrys data updated on ThursdayDelhi recorded the maximum number of263 cases followed by Maharashtra 252 Gujarat 97 Rajasthan 69Kerala65 and Telangana 62The national capital recorded a whopping 923 fresh Covid cases on Wednesday the highest daily rise since May 30 as the positivity rate breached the 1 per cent-mark 129 per cent for the second consecutive dayPTI KND NIT RC

New Delhi [India], November 19 (ANI): Metro rail in the national capital services will be suspended from Rajiv Chowk to the Central Secretariat section from the start of the day on November 21 (Sunday) till 7:30 am on the same day due to scheduled track maintenance work, informed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday.

New Delhi [India], November 3 (ANI): Delhi Police on Tuesday apprehended a man for allegedly threatening to blow up a showroom with a bomb in the Rajiv Chowk area of Delhi.

New Delhi Oct 25 PTIHow can we talk of developing Delhi into a city like London in another decade or so without focussing on the planning aspect the Delhi High Court wondered on Monday while hearing an issue related to unauthorised hawkers and street vendors in marketplacesThe high court however said it was aware that hawking provides employment to many especially from the lower strata of society and a balance has to be made between the rights of people going for marketing vendors and those who rent shopsWe talk of developing Delhi into a city like London in another decade or so How will we achieve that What happens to the planning aspect it saidWhile referring to the situation in Connaught Place and Nehru Place a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said people cant even walk in Connaught Place as there are vendors occupying the space which has become a businessIn Nehru Place you cant even walk as street vendors have made it their permanent place of business We had to take suo motu cognisance of a fire incident at Nehru Place The matter is presently before another bench The condition of the Nehru Place market is like a slum The need is to decide on the number of permissible vendors in a particular area while taking into account the plan of the place the bench saidThe court was hearing a batch of petitions relating to challenge to the Street Vendors Act and by street vendors seeking various benefits including regularisation under the lawSenior advocate Sanjeev Ralli appeared for the New Delhi Traders Association which represents shop owners and operators in the Connaught Place CP area that is Rajiv Chowk and Indira Chowk The court has recently directed the removal of unauthorised vendors and hawkers in the Connaught Place and Nehru Place areaThe bench said it will look into the challenge to the Street Vendors Act as it was willing to take the bull by its hornsIt said it was conscious that street vending provides employment to many especially from lower strata of the society and people can buy goods at lower prices but there is a need to balance the rights of the shopkeepers who pay lakhs of rupees for rent of shops or people who want free access to the market area and of street vendorsThe bench said it was against street hawking and that we all have grown up buying from street hawkers we still go to kirana shops street food vendors for our day-to-day needs The bench said people go to malls only for buying high-end clothes and not for daily need items and added that nobody is against street hawkers and both should co-exist and it just want that the city is not unreasonably crowded due to themThe bench said more than 50 per cent of people are representing vendors interests on the TVC and added we know the weakness of our system unfortunately The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 30 PTI SKV SKV RKS RKS