The capital city will find itself under a thick blanket of security ahead of the 35{+t}{+h}National Games that begins here on Saturday, with the fortnight-long sporting festival expected to see thousands of athletes and technical staff from various States across the 12 venues here.
Thursday saw sentries and additional security personnel being posted at each of the 12 venues, while an intensified patrolling by the City police was launched on Thursday night. Flying sentries and armed personnel are also part of the patrolling team.
City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh said all the venues for the Games were already ‘secured,’ with security personnel, surveillance cameras and related arrangements put in place. “From Friday, we will have 1,200 policemen, including the entire City police machinery, two companies of the Border Security Force and seven battalions of the India Reserve Battalion, State Armed Police and so on manning the streets,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
The City police, which had been on a state of high alert ever since November following Maoist threats and reports of possible infiltrations via the coast, had also made arrangements to keep a constant eye on the Games venues through additional security cameras, of its own and also of contracted agencies. Most of these additional cameras had already been installed.
The process of repairing and replacing around 90 of its surveillance cameras and installing 10 cameras at new spots was in the final stages, he said.
University Stadium, the shooting range at Vattiyurkavu, Jimmy George Indoor Stadium and Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium would have a total of 63 cameras.
Combing operations would also be intensified.
