  Garzon et al. (1997), Lopez-Corredoira et al. (1999) and Hammersley et al.
(2000) have identified in TMGS and DENIS data a large excess of stars at l=27
deg and b=0 deg which might correspond to an in-plane bar. We compared near
infrared CAIN star counts and simulations from the Besancon Model of Galaxy on
15 fields between 15 deg and 45 deg in longitude and -2 deg and 2 deg in
latitude. Comparisons confirm the existence of an overdensity at longitudes
lower than 27 deg which is inhomogeneous and decreases very steeply off the
Galactic plane. The observed excess in the star distribution over the predicted
density is even higher than 100%. Its distance from the sun is estimated to be
lower than 6 kpc. If this overdensity corresponds to the stellar population of
the bar, we estimate its half-length to 3.9 +/ -0.4 kpc and its angle from the
Sun-center direction to 45 +/- 9 degrees.
