Advertisement
For the first time, all official invites for the ceremonial event will be sent online, they said. This will be the first Republic Day celebrations hosted at the ceremonial boulevard after Rajpath was renamed to ‘Kartavya Path’ last year. A presentation on the celebrations to be held from January 23-31 as part of the Republic Day celebrations was made on Wednesday after a press briefing by Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane at the South Block here. The Republic Day celebrations will be held in a spirit of greater ‘janbhagdari’ (public participation) and workers of Central Vista project and their family members, maintenance workers of Kartavya Path, vegetable vendors, milk booth workers, grocery shopkeepers and rickshaw-pullers will be ”special invitees”, the officials shared during the presentation.
”Before COVID-19, over a lakh people used to attend the Republic Day celebrations, which was drastically cut in the immediate years following the outbreak of the pandemic in India (in early 2020). This year about 42,000 people are expected to attend it and 32,000 tickets for seats at the event have been put online, and the response from people have been good,” the senior official said. New bleachers and retractable seats have been put up in the lawns of the Kartavya Path, and with more space between two seats, he said.
The celebrations will begin with a grand event on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23 and go on till Gandhi Jayanti, the defence secretary said. A military contingent from Egypt will also be taking part in the celebrations, officials said.