The Chennai city police are formulating an anti-terror cell (ATC) to monitor and tackle extremist activity in the city.
The specialised unit will be the highlight of the new police commissionerate that will be inaugurated in Vepery on Friday.
The office of the commissioner of police, with various departments, will move out of the historic building on Pantheon Road which has been the administrative epicentre of the city police for over 170 years.
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A newly-built nine-storey structure, with state-of-the-art facilities, on Poonamallee High Road will be the new commissionerate. It is scheduled to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister at noon on Friday.
The construction of the 1.73-lakh sq. ft. structure, built on 5.49 acres of land, began in 2009. Work was completed a few months ago, at a cost of over Rs. 25 crore.
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According to the police, ATC, with specialised personnel handpicked from the Central crime branch (CCB), will work in coordination with the city intelligence unit, mainly the communal intelligence section and the cyber crime cell.
A work area with hi-tech computers, phone trackers and other surveillance equipment is being readied on the fifth floor of the new commissionerate.
The special team is also likely to be equipped with crime and criminal tracking networking system which will provide the unit with a database and single-monitoring tool for persons with terror links in the country.
Offices at the new commissionerate
While the commissioner and the four additional commissioners and joint commissioner (intelligence) will occupy the topmost floor in the new building, alongside a large conference hall, the traffic police control room and another control room with children, women and senior citizen’s helpline, will be housed on floor seven.
Floor six is dedicated to the intelligence wing and floors five, four and three house the various administrative wings of the city police manned by deputy commissioners.
The elite special unit of the city police, the CCB with its 17 departments, occupy the second and first floors, alongside the cyber crime lab.
The ground floor will house the public grievances redressal hall, passport verification zone and a reception area. There is also basement parking facility for vehicles.