BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday formally unveiled induction of 12 mobile police control room (PCR) vans and five beat patrol motorcycles into the existing fleet of the Twin City police Commissionerate which is faced with a growing challenge to meet the urban policing demands.
Currently, the Twin City police has 33 PCR vans for the Capital City and 22 for Cuttack. While the existing fleet was sponsored by Nalco, this is for the first time the State Government has funded procurement of the vehicles.
Of the new lot, eight PCR vans will be used by Bhubaneswar UPD while four will patrol in Cuttack UPD. All the vehicles are fitted with GPS sets, cameras and vehicle-tracking devices besides the public address systems. The new PCR vans will replace the old ones which are more than eight years old and have run over 2 lakh km.
With the Twin City witnessing a huge population jump, the Commissionerate Police is in the process of seeking more vans, infrastructure and man-power from the Government. It is preparing a proposal to raise the PCR van fleet from 33 to 55 in Bhubaneswar and from 22 to 35 in Cuttack UPD.
The reasons are not far to seek. The frequency and volume of calls through emergency numbers have increased three fold in the recent months. Currently, the Commissionerate Police receives at least 3,000 calls a day (a whopping 1 lakh calls a month) through Dial 100, 181 and 1091.
While PCR Vans are manned by retired sub-inspectors (SI) or assistant SIs, home guards and an armed Jawan of the Odisha Armed Police Force, sources said the Commissionerate Police would seek permanent staff to man the mobile patrol brigade. The proposal will seek an ASI, two constables and a driver in each shift for each van.
The Commissionerate Police is also planning to install central monitoring of the live feed of CCTV cameras at Bhubaneswar DCP office. Cuttack UPD which receives around 1000 distress calls a day will also get a modern control room soon.
Besides, the Commissionerate Police is planning to replace old PCR vans with new vehicles in phases. The Commissionerate Police will take a call on fixing some of the old vehicles and keep those in reserve while disposing of the others through auction.
Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, DGP KB Singh and Police Commissioner YB Khurania were present during the unveiling ceremony.