ASEAN Summit preparations are underway with only seven days to go, traffic flow is affected Wednesday as the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) and other security agencies held a joint exercise for the ASEAN Summit, which is slated from October 9 and 10 in the country.

The exercise will take place in the vicinity of Bandar Seri Begawan, covering Jln Sultan, Jln Stoney, Jln Pemancha, Jln McArthur, Jln Elizabeth II, Jln Pretty, Jln Sumbiling and other nearby areas.

Other agencies participating are Royal Brunei Armed Forces ( RBAF), Royal Brunei Customs and Excise Department, Fire and Rescue Department, Department of Immigration and National Registration, Internal Security Department (KDN), Department of Medicine of the Ministry of Health and Brunei Research Department (BRD).

The RBPF said earlier that the exercise may cause traffic jam, as well as confusion and panic among the public. The public is advised to remain calm during the course of the exercise.

Meanwhile, His Majesty the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei as the Chairman of the 23rd ASEAN Summit, Tuesday toured the venue of the summit, the International Convention Center (ICC), to take a closer look at the country's preparations, particularly the halls for the summit, the official welcome of ASEAN Leaders, Gala Dinner, 8th East Asia Summit and 16th ASEAN Plus Three Summit.

He then proceeded to the International Media Center (IMC) which will host 915 media personnel, including 726 from overseas, according to the media secretariat located at ICC.

The Information Department has deployed two fiber optic Internet lease Lines with a bandwidth of 100 MB each from local telecommunications providers Telecom Brunei Berhad (Telbru) and Datastream Technology Sdn Bhd (DST). Separate booths for broadcast journalists are equipped with 2x5MB broadband Lines totaling 250MB bandwidth capacity.