Deepavali weekend: Tight security in shopping hubs across Chennai

CHENNAI: Chennai Police have heightened security across the city, by deploying more than 18,000 police personnel, a majority of them posted at the shopping hubs such as T Nagar, Purasawalkam, Parrys, Washermanpet and other areas where crowds are expected to throng in numbers over the weekend.

Police have installed 16 temporary watch towers in these shopping hubs. In T Nagar, six special cameras have been installed, which would use the face recognition software to identify previous offenders.

Apart from this, in T Nagar, body worn cameras will be pinned to uniforms of 17 police personnel and five drones will also be deployed in the shopping hubs, police said.

Additional police strength has been deployed at bus terminuses in the city, including Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT), Madhavaram, to facilitate smooth passenger movement. Personnel from Armed Reserve (AR) and other wings too will be pressed to streamline traffic in important junctions in the city.

Commissioner of police, Shankar Jiwal visited Purasawalkam, T Nagar and Koyambedu and examined the security arrangements on Friday.

Police in plain clothes too were seen advising people wearing gold jewellery to cover these valuables to wrap a separate cloth to prevent easy targets for the robbers and thieves in shopping hubs.

Government Railway Police (GRP) said that they too have increased vigil in railway stations across the state to ensure passenger safety and also to prevent carrying crackers in trains.

Meanwhile, at least 6,673 fire and rescue personnel are kept ready to handle fire emergencies during Diwali, according to Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS).

The fire and rescue service personnel have conducted safe Diwali awareness programmes at 1,610 educational institutions and 1,120 general public places in the past three months and several fire tenders from nearby districts have been deployed at Chennai as standby.