Chennai: Expect big traffic snarls during Modi, Sonia Gandhi visits

Chennai: With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi scheduled to visit the city on Thursday and Friday for their election campaigns, the security agencies, including the Special Protection Group, have beefed up security at the Old Airport in Meenambakkam as well as in places they are scheduled to address public meetings.

Motorists using Anna Salai and certain roads in south and east Chennai may experience traffic snarls on Thursday and Friday evenings as security agencies are expected to put traffic restrictions in place on both days due to the presence of VVIPs in the city.

On Thursday evening, Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to attend public meetings in Puducherry and Chennai. The Congress chief is expected to land at the Old Airport in a special flight at around 4 pm and from there travel to Puducherry in a helicopter where she would address an election rally. She is to land back in INS Adyar in Chennai and travel by road to Island Grounds where she is scheduled to participate in an election rally along with DMK leaders, including M. Karunanidhi.

She would travel by road back to the Old Airport for her special flight to Delhi by 8 pm. “The SPG team lead by a DIG had already had meeting with officials from other agencies on Tuesday. SPG sleuths had also visited her public venues,” police sources said.