During this Ganpati festival, the Mumbai police will use at least a couple of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called ‘Netra’ for aerial monitoring of crowd management, including one which would be flying over the the Girgaum beach where most famous Ganpati idols like the Lalbaugcha Raja and idol from Ganesh Galli will be immersed.
Even though the Mumbai police has made elaborate security arrangements for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival this year, police commissioner Satyapal Singh, as well as additional commissioner, special branch, Naval Bajaj have made it clear that the threat of terrorism looms large and they cannot be “100 per cent sure” of preventing them without the help of the general public who need to be “very alert”.
Briefing the media on Saturday on the security measures, Mr Singh said, “We have received terror threats, but there is no specific terror threat for Mumbai ahead of Ganeshotsav. To prevent terrorist activity during this festival has been the biggest challenge for us, like always.”
“We have distributed a security manual containing all the important telephone numbers and lots of information regarding security to all the 6,000 Ganesh mandals,” he added.
Mr Bajaj, in his quick speech, said, “We are trying to train mandal volunteers like we train our men for formal bandobast and have informed them that they can approach us for any help with the security,” he added. The elite Force 1, Quick Response Teams and other forces, including paramilitary forces are on stand by.
Elaborating on traffic arrangements, joint commissioner, traffic, Vivek Phansalkar, said, “The number of CCTV cameras have been increased this year. To ensure smooth flow of traffic during the four days when the visarjan processions take place, 50 roads will be closed for vehicular movement, 56 roads will be made one-ways and parking will be restricted at 94 places.”
“We will have 400 divers at the visarjan points, apart from the divers provided by the BMC. There will be 5,000 volunteers from different groups, along with 900 NSS and 400 NCC volunteers who will help us to minimise the traffic snarls,” added Mr Phansalkar.