The opening ceremony of the Delhi Commonwealth Games saw tight security arrangements in place by both the Indian Air Force and Army, with air defence guns in place on the ground and unmanned aerial vehicles in the skies to detect any terror threat from the skies. The Indian Army also deployed night-vision heavy equipment near stadia to foil any terror attempt. The IAF also positioned its frontline fighter aircraft such as the Sukhoi-30 MKI in a state of readiness.
The region of the radius of 60 kms around Delhi has been identified as a “hot zone” and it will be difficult for non-scheduled flights to operate in airspace of 300 km around Delhi throughout the duration of the Games although scheduled commercial flights will operate as usual.
Commercial flights operated as usual throughout Sunday from the New Delhi IGI airport. While some of the airline officials feared that flights may be delayed due to the tight security for the opening ceremony, Delhi airport sources said there were no flight delays. Airline officials had feared on Sunday that there could be flight delays if Sukhoi fighter aircraft on sorties fly at altitudes of over 30,000 feet which commercial aircraft climb to. However, IAF sources said no Sukhoi fighter aircraft sorties were planned.
On Sunday, no non-scheduled flight was permitted to take off or land at the Delhi airport and other airports within the 300 km zone around it from 5 pm to 10 pm.
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Several ATMs run out of cash
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
Oct. 3: As the capital virtually shut down on the inaugural day of the Commonwealth Games, bank ATMs ran out of cash resulting in inconvenience to people. Several bank ATMs either put up a notice of having no cash or being out of order from Sunday morning.
A number of ATMs near the Meharchand market from where the spectators walked down to the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, the venue of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, put up notices of having no cash. Similar was the story with some of the other ATMs in various parts of the capital.
For instance, people were turned away by the security guards at bank ATMs at Shivalik Road and Malviya Nagar, after being told that there was no cash.
“As there is a directive for shutdown of all commercial establishments by the Government, the ATMs did not get fresh stocks of money,” said a security guard at one of the bank ATMs.
But people were left fuming. “This is the first week of the month and so I wanted to withdraw money after the salary was credited to my account but now I have to wait for tomorrow. This is disappointing, as the bank ATMs are supposed to be functional round the clock,” said Rajesh Kumar at the Shivalik Road ATM of a bank.