With growing concerns over the Tibet protests against China, the Indian government has decided to cut short the route of the Olympic torch relay to ensure an incident free run on April 17 after the arrival of torch in New Delhi during its India leg.
The government is so concerned that it has decided to shorten the flame's relay route significantly from nine kilometers to about three kilometers. The torch relay was originally slated to be from Red Fort to India Gate but it has now been revised and the route will be much shorter.
“There could be some changes in the original route because of the situation that is prevailing,” IOA President Suresh Kalmadi said while confirming the curtailment of the route.
Security arrangements will be of high priority for the April 17 run. The security measure will be of like Republic Day mainly to keep protestors at bay and to restrict their access to Rajpath.
The Chinese ambassador to India had also approached the Home Ministry over torch's security after Tibetan protestors stormed their embassy last month. A final assessment will be done at the South Bloc on Thursday regarding this issue.
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