No leaves for the next 10 days, enforcement of additional manpower, including paramilitary forces as the threat of terrorism looms large in the financial capital of the country are among the steps the Mumbai police has implemented to ensure a safe Ganesh Chaturthi starting Monday.
Additional commissioner, special branch, Naval Bajaj admitted that they have been receiving inputs on plausible terror attacks from intelligence agencies. Mr Bajaj, however, stated that there was no specific threat input for the city till now.
Sadanand Date, joint commissioner, law and order, said, “Do not allow anyone to park cars anywhere near the mandals or in congested places. We shall ensure no cars are parked on the roads used for procession routes. Please make use of emergency numbers 100 and 103 and help will be at hand in seven minutes.” He further added, “We will be keeping a tab on the noise levels, which need to be under the permissible limit as there are students, senior citizens and elderly women who would be affected by it.”
Requesting citizens to be alert, Mumbai police commissioner, Satyapal Singh said, “Please report even the slightest of suspicious things to the police. The general public needs to inculcate qualities of Lord Ganesh by learning to keep their eyes, ears and nose open all the time.”
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 will be 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.
Deputy commissioner, traffic, Pratap Dighavkar said, “This year there will be CCTV cover in Bandra, Santa Cruz, Juhu and Khar with 150-odd CCTV cameras being installed on the procession routes, which will help us in monitoring the situation better.”