16,000 police personnel to be stationed across Chennai on Kaanum Pongal

CHENNAI: As many as 16,000 police personnel will be deployed for security duty by the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) on Thursday to regulate and monitor crowds visiting public places like Marina beach for Kaanum Pongal celebrations.

Additionally, 1500 Home guard volunteers will be stationed at Marina and temporary mini control rooms and assistant booths have been set up at the seven entrances of service road from Labour statue to Light house.

Apart from this, mechanized boats along with 200 swimmers will also be stationed at the beaches.

At Marina beach, watch towers have been erected in which three police personnel will be posted, equipped with walkie talkies, megaphones, binoculars. Additional CCTV cameras have been installed at 12 vital places and monitoring will be done on wide screens in the temporary control room.

"Public are not allowed to venture into the sea on Wednesday. A temporary fencing has been erected along the coast," an official release said.

Three ATV (all terrain vehicles) and mounted branch personnel will be patrolling the sands to prevent theft and prevent people from venturing into the waters. Trained personnel of GCP along with swimmers of Coastal Security Group (CSG) will also be deployed in the coast.

Similar arrangements are made at Elliots beach too. Families with children will be issued ID cards with details of name, parent, address and mobile number of the parent and tied on the hands of the child. Eight drone cameras- four each at Marina and Elliots beach will be utilized.

Apart from the security arrangements at beaches, police assistance booths have been set up at prominent public gathering places including Children's Park, Guindy, Tamil Nadu Government Tourism Exhibition at Island Grounds and amusement parks. Road Safety Teams of GCTP will patrol in two-wheelers and check points have been set up at important traffic junctions to prevent overspeeding and bike racing on arterial roads.