71 high rise buildings to be shut down for R-Day parade

Security agencies will partly or completely shut down 71 high rise buildings in the vicinity of Rajpath for this year's Republic Day celebrations where US President Barack Obama will be the Chief Guest, much higher then earlier occasions when only around 45 establishments were closed.
While the number of seats to be sanitized has increased this time, the number of passes issued for this year's event in ratio of the available seats has seen a decline of almost 60 per cent.
"Earlier, 300 passes were issued for every 100 seats available at the Rajpath as it was expected that only one out of three persons actually turned up at the event. But there were chances of overcrowding too with this approach so this time authorities are issuing only 125 passes for every 100 available seats," said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.

According to police, it will partly or completely shut down around 71 high rise buildings in the vicinity of Rajpath.
"Earlier, we used to shutdown only around 45 buildings from which Rajpath was directly visible but this time we will occupy 71 buildings which are in close proximity of the parade venue. The new buildings we will dominate this time are mostly high rises from where Rajpath may not be directly visible but from where projectiles can be launched," he said.
Police will take over these buildings around 1 PM on January 25 and sanitise every nook and corner of these buildings manually. Snipers will be positioned on the roof tops of these buildings after that.

"We are taking over these buildings a day before because we need daylight to check them. It is a tedious process because checking each building takes 5 to 6 hours during which every room, even washrooms are checked whether anybody is hiding any explosives. Once checked the rooms are sealed," he added.