New Year celebrations sweep across India amid tight security and festive fervour

Tourists celebrate and dance on Mall Road on New Year’s Eve in Manali, Kullu on December 31, 2025. (IANS Photo)

New Delhi, (IANS): India welcomed the New Year with grand celebrations, countdown parties and festive gatherings, as state governments across the country stepped up security measures to ensure that the celebrations passed off smoothly and without incident.

In major metropolitan cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, large crowds thronged iconic landmarks such as India Gate, Connaught Place and Marine Drive to usher in the New Year, creating a vibrant and festive atmosphere.

Meanwhile, authorities across the country issued traffic advisories, guidelines for restaurants and hotels, and deployed additional security forces in anticipation of massive footfall in public places.

Despite chilling conditions in Delhi, Connaught Place and Vasant Vihar saw a steady influx of revellers, with families and groups gathering in markets and open spaces ahead of the New Year celebrations.

Speaking to IANS in Connaught Place, a tourist said, "I have come from Punjab to celebrate the New Year here, and I hope this year is good for everyone."

"It is cold, but we are happy to welcome 2026 here with our friends," another said.

Officials said that in areas expecting heavy crowds in the national capital, the police put comprehensive security arrangements in place to prevent any untoward incidents and to maintain law and order.

Security arrangements on the ground in Delhi were closely monitored by several senior officials, including six Assistant Commissioners of Police and one Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police. As many as 1,469 police personnel were deployed across Delhi’s West District alone to ensure public safety during the celebrations.

In Rajasthan, stringent traffic safety measures were also implemented, including the setting up of checkpoints, inspection of vehicles and strict action against those found driving under the influence of alcohol.

In Maharashtra, eateries, restaurants, hotels, orchestra bars and pubs were permitted to operate till 5 a.m. on January 1 as part of the New Year celebrations.

In Bengaluru, around 20,000 police personnel were deployed to ensure smooth New Year’s Eve celebrations, as more than ten lakh people were expected to gather at various locations across the city for the festivities.Even as people in the eastern parts of the world began bidding farewell to 2025, popular hill destinations such as Shimla and Manali witnessed a huge rush of tourists and revellers, braving the biting cold to ring in the New Year amid the mountains. New Year celebrations sweep across India amid tight security and festive fervour | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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Delhi Police creates 'green corridor' for live heart passage from airport to hospital


The Delhi Traffic Police on Thursday played an instrumental role in providing a green corridor to a human heart after it received an emergent request from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in which it was informed that a human heart under VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) is being flown from Vadodara to Delhi for a heart transplant surgery by a flight at 2:30 pm at Terminal 2 of IGI airpot for which a fast-moving green corridor is required from T-2 to AIIMS to avoid wastage of time.

Police swung into action and immediately deputed officers and a green corridor for the passage of ambulance carrying the 'live heart' were planned. The traffic inspectors piloted the ambulance throughout the route of 18.5 km from T-2 to AIIMS. It took 12 minutes for the heart to reach the destination, which would have otherwise taken anything between 35 and 40 minutes.

"This is the least anyone can do to save a precious life," said Joint CP, Traffic, Manish Kumar Agrawal.

The heart transplant saved the life of 20-year-old critically ill youth at AIIMS.

"The boy's heart had stopped functioning for which he had to undergo an urgent transplant. We arranged the heart of a 16-year-old brain dead patient in Vadodara which was flown to Delhi immediately and was transported in a very short time from the airport to AIIMS," an AIIMS spokesperson informed.

The boy underwent the transplant and has been saved, the spokesperson added.

The AIIMS officials also said that credit for this life-saving operation also goes to the Delhi Police whose pro-activeness enabled the live heart to reach the hospital on time. Source: https://southasiamonitor.org/
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Delhi virus cases dip but more states impose curbs

Delhi

Agencies/ New Delhi recorded fewer than 1,000 coronavirus cases for the first time in seven weeks yesterday, even as more states imposed restrictions to halt the spread of the pandemic.
India last week became the third country after the United States and Brazil to hit 1mn cases but many experts say that with testing rates low, the true number could be much higher.
More than 28,000 people have died, with Maharashtra, home to Mumbai and its teeming slums, suffering the highest death toll followed by the national capital and Tamil Nadu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, but it has been steadily eased in recent months to lessen the devastating economic impact.
But, independently from the federal government, individual states have been tightening restrictions as case numbers have soared – including in Bengaluru, Bihar and parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
On Monday authorities in West Bengal, home to about 90mn people, imposed a strict lockdown two days a week beginning tomorrow.
“The state government feels that the efforts to break the chain of Covid-19 spread have to be initiated in a strong manner,” the state’s home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said.
All government and private offices will be closed and there will be no public transport.
Private vehicles will be allowed for essential needs only.
The small northeastern state of Sikkim, bordering Tibet, on Monday also ordered a lockdown until July 27.
Delhi has offered a rare piece of good news, however, with the crisis easing since June, when hospitals and morgues in the sprawling megacity appeared close to collapse.
Monday’s count of 954 new infections in the city marked the first time the daily tally was under 1,000 in 49 days, and was down from a peak of almost 4,000 in late June.
A study testing antibodies of a random sample of people in the national capital published yesterday showed almost one in four people in the city have been infected with the coronavirus, 
According to the result of the survey, 23.48% of the 21,387 people whose blood samples were tested had Covid-19 antibodies, a government statement said.
The study, which was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control, showed that the infection rate in New Delhi was much higher than the number of confirmed cases indicated.
For a city with an approximate population of 20mn, the total number of cases at a 23.4% rate should stand around 4.7mn.
But Delhi currently has a total of 123,747 cases, less than 1% of its population.
The government said the difference indicated that a “large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic” and commended “proactive efforts” like lockdown measures to prevent the spread of infection.
As only 23.48% of people were affected in Delhi six months into the epidemic, a significant proportion of the population remained vulnerable and containment and preventive measures needed to continue with the same vigour, the government added. Source: https://www.gulf-times.com/
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