After waiting for nearly a month, the new all-terrain four-wheel-drive patrol vehicle of the Kovalam police finally got on to the beach on Tuesday, with City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh himself taking a drive up to Eve’s Beach and back.
The vehicle, Mr. Venkatesh said later, would enable the police to chase miscreants across the sands faster and would also help in rescue operations to get injured persons and others across the beach quickly. It would be exclusively to operate on the beach with the vehicle having no permission to run on other normal roads, he said.
The vehicle is an all-terrain off-road Polaris Ranger Crew 800 six-seater, which will help police get over sand dunes and hitherto tough terrains for other police vehicles, much easier than before. The vehicle, costing around Rs.18 lakh, had reached the Kovalam police station in the last week of March.
According to the police officials, getting a few “clearance papers and a tool kit etc” had delayed the launch of the vehicle.
Mr. Venkatesh said the vehicle would be officially on duty from Tuesday. Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Ajeetha Begum, Assistant Commissioner (Fort) R. Sreekumar and Circle Inspector (Kovalam) V.J. Jophy accompanied him.
Directions had been issued to use the vehicle for the Shangumugham Beach as well in between, while its operations on other beaches on the city’s coastal belt would be decided upon later.
Part of a fleet of similar vehicles purchased by the State Police originally for anti-Maoist operations in the hilly and forest terrains of districts, including Kannur, Malappuram and Wayanad, the left-hand drive will be primarily operated on the beach stretches under the Kovalam police jurisdiction, starting from the Samudra Beach or the Palace Junction and going up to the Light House area, Mr. Venkatesh said.
The vehicle could also be put to use to tackle sand smugglers on the beach, who operated in the cover of the dark, Sunu Kumar, Sub Inspector, Kovalam said.
