Sheetla Mata fair: 300 cops to be deployed

In the wake of lakhs of devotees thronging the Sheetla Mata temple near Sector 5 in Old Gurgaon to take part in the annual fair, the city police have made an elaborate arrangement to streamline traffic and maintain law and order in the area. Leena Dhankhar reports.

In the wake of lakhs of devotees thronging the Sheetla Mata temple near Sector 5 in Old Gurgaon to take part in the annual fair, the city police have made an elaborate arrangement to streamline traffic and maintain law and order in the area.

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The month-long fair, which started from Sunday, is expected to witness heavy movement of trucks and buses ferrying devotees from across Haryana.

More than 300 police personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order during the fair. Additional police forces from Karnal and Madhuban training centre will be called in. Besides, the traffic police department has made diversions and some changes in parking areas.

Policemen will be deployed at the foot overbridge near the temple, all entrance and exit gates and parking lots. Two PCR vans will be stationed outside the temple for emergency response.

On Monday, the traffic situation was discussed at a meeting and directions were issued to the police officers.

Maheshwar Dayal, joint commissioner of police, Gurgaon, said, “We cannot create space but can manage space and traffic. A temporary market comes up at the fair and people park their cars on road. To avoid the chaos on Sheetla Mata road that witnessed long jams last year during the fair, this year we have made several arrangements for smooth flow of traffic.”

Sectors 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 will be the most affected areas. Traffic from Railway Road and Subhash Nagar would be diverted through New Railway Road to reach Sector 14.

Palam Vihar residents can use a longer route to avoid traffic during the period which can be from RPS school side connecting Kapashera road.

Devotees coming from Delhi side would be given two routes to reach the temple and parking of buses would be from Sector 14 till Palam Vihar.

In order to reduce commuters’ problems, more than a dozen routes will be diverted.