CHENNAI The Tambaram police are keeping a vigil around the shopping areas ahead of Deepavali. Tight security arrangements have been made at busy areas to ensure a crime-free shopping experience. Tambaram bus stand, Shanmugam Road, Muthu Ranga Mudali Road, Kakkan Road, Gandhi Road and a few other stretches will have constant police presence.
During the festive season, people flock in huge numbers to the commercial hubs in Tambaram. The crowd is believed to be thrice as on a normal day. In order to monitor and manage the rush, nearly 25 Armed Reserve policemen have been deployed at all commercial places, bus stands and outside railway stations. This is in addition to the policemen already on duty in the area. Personnel in mufti have also been deployed to mingle with the crowd and look out for habitual offenders.
According to S. Chellappa, Inspector of Police, Tambaram, as per the instructions of V. S. Manoharan, Assistant Commisioner of Police, Tambaram, six special crowd-management teams have been formed to manage the shopping crowd. The team comprising one SI and two constables will be involved in ensuring free flow of vehicular traffic, thereby helping pedestrians. A patrol vehicle is stationed outside Tambaram railway station to monitor the movement of passengers in and out of the station. “A special team ‘Victa5’ comprising one SI and five constables are keeping a constant vigil in and around the railway station. In order to ensure better surveillance, two watchtowers have been installed. One is placed at Shanmugam Road-Abdul Razaq Road junction and another tower at MRM Road-Shanmugam Road junction, where binocular-wielding police personnel maintain round-the-clock vigil. Also at several places, temporary CCTV cameras have been installed," Chellappa added. All cracker shops are also being subjected to frequent inspection by officers and in order to prevent fire accidents, they have been asked to keep sand, water and a fire-fighting equipment ready. Of the 30 applications for fire cracker shops, a few have been cleared so far. Also, policemen have been asked to get in touch with the fire brigade and railway police. Voice-recorders have been fixed at several busy pockets, spreading messages relating safety while bursting crackers and caution while shopping. One of the police personnel said that to prevent the movement of anti-social elements, combing operations were being carried out at night through vehicle checks. Special checking teams have been stationed at several bypass junctions such as Mudichur Road, Kishkinta Road, Burma Colony, Thiruneermalai Road junction and Tambaram check-post.
“Commercial vehicles such as share autos, mini buses and heavy vehicles would be checked at these points and any person or vehicle found carrying fireworks without permit would be penalised,”Chellappa said, adding that though these beats were started keeping in mind the festive season, there was a proposal to continue them thereafter.
