VISAKHAPATNAM: With just few hours left for the major events of International Fleet Review, the crowd management and Intelligence alerts are keeping police on their toes. In the latest development, another unconfirmed alert from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said it targetted the event, ahead of VVIPs’ movement in the coastal city.
The Operational Demonstration and the City Parade event scheduled on Sunday, are turning out to be a challenge for the city police. The police have intensified security and imposed strict restrictions. The police on the one hand are working for smooth flow of crowd and making sure to avoid any untoward incident. City police commissioner Amit Garg, in a news conference here on Friday, admitted that they had received unconfirmed reports of presence of anti-social elements to create disturbance during the IFR. “At present, we are cross-checking the facts over the report. We have taken all precautionary measures and security has been strengthened,” said Amit Garg.
Keeping in view the VVIP and VIP movement in the city, the police prepared a separate traffic plan with additional security measures. Special road opening parties (ROP), including armed police teams along with Bomb Detection (BD) squad, are constantly scanning all the routes used by the VVIPs and the VIPs. The bomb detection teams are thoroughly sanitising the place of their stay, including the Beach Road, IFR village-Maritime Exhibition at AU Engineering College ground and many other areas.
Appeal to Public
Learning lessons from the rehearsals, the city police have appealed to the public to follow the regulations. Amit Garg strictly mentioned that people without valid pass would not be allowed at the venue and even asked them not to be anywhere near the premises.
“We are strict over unauthorised entries. No police will entertain people without valid pass. We have a contingency plan for such unauthorised entries,” he said. He also asked people with vehicle passes to paste them over their vehicles so as to be visible to the police, so that there won’t be delay during checkings, as thousands of vehicles are expected. Amit Garg also asked the public to use public transport instead of private vehicles.
Curbs on Beach Road Residents
The CP also stated that the vehicle passes for the Beach Road residents which were given for the dates Feb 4, 5 and 6 are strictly not valid on Feb 7. He also said that the police were giving separate vehicle passes for them for Feb 7, which should be used for that particular day. The Beach Road residents have also been requested to confine themselves to their houses with their vehicles before 2 pm, and not to allow any intruders or even family members.
Meanwhile, the IFR village will be closed till 4 pm on Saturday and remain completely closed on Sunday.