Puducherry: The coastal town with its rich French legacy celebrated New Year with fervour. Every street in the Union Territory was abuzz with tourists in festive mood on Sunday.
Two-wheelers were seen zooming on the streets at midnight. Revellers gathered on the beach road, the most popular celebration spot in Puducherry, exchanging gifts, distributing sweets and bursting firecrackers to welcome the New Year.
Tourists from neighbouring states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra seemed to make a beeline to spend New Year's Eve in Puducherry. Along with domestic tourists, foreigners also joined in celebrations at different spots.
Many of the tourists had to book their rooms in nearby Tamil Nadu towns of Cuddalore, Villippuram and Tindivanam as no accommodation was available in Puducherry. Hundreds of vehicles were seen queued up on Sunday evening itself at different tourist spots.
The celebrations were mostly incident free as police had made elaborate security arrangements to prevent any untoward incidents. The Puducherry traffic police had declared White Town as a vehicle-free zone starting from 2 pm on December 31 to 7.30 am on January 1.
The municipality had constituted teams to monitor the celebrations and a large number of India Reserve Battalion Personnel were also deployed for security duty.
Security arrangements were reviewed by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and Lt Governor Kiran Bedi. Ms Bedi visited major tourist attractions here to review security arrangements.
Midnight mass was conducted in all the churches and long queues were seen in front of the temples, including the famous Manakkula Vinayagar temple. A special meditation session was organised at Matir Mandir in Auroville.
