The Mumbai Police will use drone cameras to keep an eye on the Maratha Morcha to be held in the city on Wednesday morning, which is expected to attract at least five lakh participants from across the State.
The protest march will start from outside the Byculla Zoo at 11 a.m. and end at Azad Maidan under heavy police bandobast.
“We have divided the entire route in different parts, and each stretch will be watched by a drone camera. The feed from the cameras will be monitored live at viewing centres set up at police stations along the route, so that at any indication of trouble, the police personnel closest to the spot can be informed immediately. We will have personnel on standby, so that they can rush to any spot where the need for reinforcement is felt,” said a senior officer with the Mumbai Police.
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Effective tool
Police officers said drone cameras have been observed to be an effective tool to monitor events involving huge crowds.
The police had used drone cameras during the Ganeshotsav last year and found them to be effective for real-time monitoring. The cameras were later also used to keep watch on the Republic Day parade at Shivaji Park this year. Police officers said that apart from monitoring an event, drone cameras also record the feed, which proves to be useful as evidence at a later stage in case a law-and-order situation breaks out.
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The police will also monitor the rally through the citywide CCTV camera network, which broadcasts live feed to the Mumbai Police control room. The police have also deployed heavy bandobast along the route of the procession.
“We will have personnel from the State Reserve Police Force, the Riot Control Police, the local arms unit and the local police enforcing bandobast on Wednesday. Adequate personnel have been deployed,” said Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Rashmi Karandikar.
GRP, RPF deployed
The Railway authorities are also gearing up to cater to the lakhs of people who will be coming to the city to participate in the protest march. Maximum personnel of the Government Railway Police and the Railway Protection Force will be deployed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Dadar, Kurla, Byculla, Ghatkopar and Mulund stations on the central line, and Wadala, Belapur and Vashi on the Harbour line to control the crowd that will pour in from all over the State.
Teams of ticket-checking staff have also been asked to be at the railway stations from 8 a.m.
The Railway administration is attaching one or two extra coaches as required to the trains coming from Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur and other locations in Western Maharashtra. Railway authorities expect an inflow of nearly 2.5 lakh passengers.
Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer, Central Railway, said, “Elaborate arrangements have been made in the Mumbai Division for crowd management at Central Railway stations. Based on inputs on number of people who will go back to their destination after the rally after 2 p.m., we will run additional suburban services as per the requirement. For long-distance trains, extra coaches will be attached. One extra general coach will be attached to seven trains.”