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Traffic arrangements put in place as President Obama arrives Delhi | | Authorities in the national capital have swung into action with a traffic plan to facilitate visiting US President Barack Obama's various engagements. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, personally
received President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the Air Force
Station, Palam, next to the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday afternoon.
The Prime Minister's wife, Gursharan Kaur, was also present to receive the Obamas'
when they landed here at around 3: 35 p.m. after a busy schedule in Mumbai. Minister
of protocol for Obama's visit Salman Khursheed and Foreign Secretary Nirupama
Rao were also present along with Dr. Singh. Both carriageways from the Airport
to the ITC Maurya, where the Obamas' will be staying during their New Delhi visit
has been closed today. Traffic restrictions are also in place at Sardar Patel
Marg, Ashoka Road , Kasturba Gandhi Marg, and Copernicus Marg from 8 a.m. and
will continue in the similar fashion till 10 p.m. The commuters have been advised
to avoid these routs today. President Obama and Michelle Obama will head directly
to the renovated tomb of the second Mughal Emperor Humayun soon after their arrival
here. During his two-day stopover in the Indian capital, a multi-layered security
has been put in place. Security and intelligence officials have already secured
and sanitized the ITC Maurya Hotel in Delhi , where the Obamas' will be staying
during their visit. All routes leading to and out of the hotel have been placed
under surveillance by both American and Indian security and intelligence agencies
due to the high profile visit. The ITC Maurya Sheraton has been made out of bounds
for the public. Snipers have been deployed on rooftops along the route that the
Obamas' will take during the next two days. Places like Humayun''s tomb and Rajghat,
the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, which are on the US President's itinerary, have
been closed to other visitors. Around 2,000 police and paramilitary personnel
will be deployed in and around the hotel, which had earlier hosted US Presidents
Bill Clinton in 2000 and George W Bush in 2006 besides US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton last year. Proximity security to Obama will be given by his guards while
the other cordons will be manned by personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary
forces as also the elite National Security Guards (NSG). The inner ring comprises
200 American secret service agents, while the outer ring will be manned by the
Delhi police. Mock security drills have been carried out at the Parliament, where
the US President will address a joint session on Monday evening. "The arrangements
that we have made for him have been done several times before, when the Pakistani
head of state visited us or when the Israeli Prime Minister had come. There is
no special treatment just because he is the American President," Joint Commissioner
of Police, Traffic, Satender Garg had said prior to President Obama's visit.
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