CHENNAI, VILLUPURAM: Security has been beefed up on Marina and Besant Nagar beaches here, where thousands of people are expected to gather during Kaanum Pongal celebration. As part of the measures, city police will provide wrist bands for children to trace them, in case they go missing.
“The bands will have details of their parents, including phone numbers, and it can be received from the police booths set up on both beaches. Wooden barricades and caution boards will be set up, warning the public to not venture deep into the waters,” said a police official.
Around 15,000 police personnel in uniform and plainclothes will be deployed in different parts of the city.
A temporary control room-cum-police booth will be on the Marina and Besant Nagar. Security towers will be erected and ambulances will be in place near the beach.
All terrain vehicles will be doing rounds to monitor the crowd. Divers and swimmers will also be roped in to deal with any emergency situation. Strict instructions to ensure safety have been passed on to theatre owners and management of shopping malls too, the official said.
In Villupuram, which has a national highway running to the the south districts, the traffic moved at snail pace, especially at the tollgates. By the afternoon on Friday, vehicles had started lining up at the Vikrawandi toll gate on the Chennai-Tiruchy national highways. Situation at the Ulundurpet tollgate was no different.
The queue dragged on for over a kilometre and the toll gate staff opened three more counters on the other lane, in additional to the six bays that were already working on the lane towards Tiruchy.