Common Man was blocked from road access to give the delegates a smooth ride

Even as delegates of the Commonwealth General Assembly criss-crossed the city to take stock of Delhi’s preparedness for the Games, no major disruption in movement of traffic was reported from anywhere. The traffic police attributed it to thin vehicular movement and say people were cooperative and followed advisories. The delegates will continue visiting various sites on Friday but motorists needn’t worry.

The traffic police don’t anticipate any congestion on Friday because the delegates will move around in three groups and the visits are not concentrated in just one area. The first group will go to Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, then Kadarpur, Gurgaon via MB Road and MG Road and then back to Hotel Ashok. The second group will visit Yamuna Sports Complex, India Gate, Delhi University via Ring Road and back to Hotel Ashok. The third group will first head for Delhi University, then RK Khanna Stadium, Siri Fort and back to the hotel. The movement will start at 8am and continue till about 7pm.

‘‘We are not expecting much congestion on Friday since the movement is scattered across a large area, unlike Thursday when both the groups were moving around in central Delhi only. The buses will be given a free passage, but all the roads will be accessible,’’ said S N Shrivastava, joint commissioner of police (traffic). The delegates split into two groups visited Commonwealth Games Village, IG Stadium, National Stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Tyagaraj Stadium, Talkatora Stadium and SPM Aquatics Centre on Thursday. There was a last-minute change in plan and the delegates were also taken to the Commonwealth Organizing Committee (OC) headquarters in Connaught Place around 5.30pm. The last visit caused some congestion in Outer Circle and some of the radial roads were closed for a brief while during the evening rush hour. But apart from this, there was no disruption in traffic during the day.

‘‘After seeing the situation on Thursday, we’re sure that management of traffic during the Games will be done very well. The people of Delhi were very cooperative. Traffic on all the affected roads was very thin and not a single call for jams came,’’ Shrivastava added.