New Delhi: Ushering in the New Year and bidding adieu to the old, highly spirited Delhiites rocked at gala parties to greet 2009 with new hopes and aspirations.

As the clock struck 0000 hours, people wearing fancy masks honked car horns and exchanged hugs to usher in the new year.

The overwhelming enthusiasm of the people got a boost as the year was prolonged by one full second. To add to the jubilation, Venus and the crescent Moon came together in the evening in a rare celestial conjunction which was visible through naked eye.

Connaught Place was the epicentre of the celebrations in the city where people dressed in their festive best congregated to welcome the new year.

The Central Park in Connaught Place and India Gate became a sea of human beings with teenagers, couples, children with their parents and grandparents, officegoers and friends dancing to the tunes played on their car stereos.

It was a no-vehicle zone this evening at Connaught Place to control the crowd. Police personnel were in huge numbers there, keeping a close watch on the revellers.

For the first time, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the keepers of the Indian Standard Time (IST), recalibrated their atomic clocks to prolong it by one second as it was mandated by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.

Source : PTI