Three VIPs will pack up Saturday traffic

MUMBAI: Saturday, December 23, will be a big day for Mumbai, with three senior leaders — President APJ Kalam, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Sharad Pawar — visiting the city for various events.

Gandhi is scheduled to flag off the party’s BMC election campaign at Shivaji Park that morning. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will be hosting a public meeting of minorities at the Shanmukhanand Hall at King’s Circle. And President Kalam will attend the largest-ever gathering of IIT alumni at Bandra-Kurla complex.

All three programmes are scheduled to take place between Dadar and Bandra and are likely to draw large crowds. So, while police juggle routes and parking spaces, commuters should prepare themselves for diversions and traffic jams.

Sonia Gandhi’s last rally at Shivaji Park in 2003 drew a huge crowd, a record for the party. This time, the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee expects the party to top that record.

Pawar’s meeting will also be a large one, expected to draw more than 5,000 minority supporters.

The IITians are not to be left behind in the numbers game. Bandra-Kurla complex will be host to the largest gathering of IIT alumni in the world. The three-day session, starting December 23, will be inaugurated by the President. The IIT Alumni 2006 Global conference will have the likes of Sri Sri Ravishankar, George Soros, and Shashi Tharoor as guest speakers.

But Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satish Mathur feels that Mumbaikars have no cause for worry. Citing December 6, when the police managed the large crowd that had gathered for Babasaheb Ambedkar’s death anniversary, as an example, he said commuters have no reason to panic.

“Ninety per cent of the travel of President Kalam and Sonia Gandhi is by helicopter,” he said, “so there will be few roadblocks. They will only travel short distances by road.”