Starting today, avoid taking the roads with the blue patches.
These stretches — exclusively for Commonwealth Games delegates and sportspersons — will be closed to traffic between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for daily trial runs. Schedules for other days will come out on a
day-to-day basis.
And September 20 onwards, when the foreign visitors start landing in Delhi, things will get decidedly worse. Commuters can expect massive jams, especially near the airport, as the visitors are ferried to the Games Village in east Delhi via these dedicated lanes. Trespassers will be fined R2,000 and could get their cars impounded.
Of 450 km of arterial road space in Delhi, 105 km will be dedicated to the Games. “The extreme left lanes of roads from the Games Village to venues and the airport will be Games lanes,” said Ajay Chaddha, special commissioner of police (traffic).
However, some roads will bear the blue patches on their extreme right lanes, which could create confusion.
"There will be zero tolerance and maximum prosecution of people straying into the lanes. Violators will be fined Rs 2,000," said Chaddha.
The L-G's office will issue a notification on fines and other penalties for violators in a day or two. The Games Organising Committee is yet to release the sportspersons' schedules, on the basis of which the police will close the lanes, Chaddha said.
His advice to Delhiites: "Use car pools, the Metro and other modes of public transport as far as possible and avoid the dedicated lanes. In case no movement is planned on a particular road on any day, the traffic restrictions will be lifted."