Visakhapatnam is gearing up for the two naval events — Presidential Fleet Review (PFR) and Milan 2022 — in the next couple of days. While the district administration is giving final touches to the arrangements, police have been organising rehearsals to ensure that there are no security lapses and the crowd is managed well. The Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development (VMRDA) and the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) are working overtime to deck up Beach Road, where the city parade and operations demo will be held as part of Milan on February 27. The Vizagites are eagerly awaiting the events, as they already had a taste of such an event in the form of the International Fleet Review (IFR) in 2016, in which over five lakh people had come to Beach Road.
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A large part of the success goes to the city police in organising the IFR. The department across various wings worked as a team and a key role was played by the traffic team that not only looked after VIP convoy movement but also the pre and post crowd and traffic management.
Former Additional DCP (Traffic) K. Mahendra Patrudu, who headed the traffic wing during IFR, recalling his experiences, said that VIP convoy movement and crowd management were the toughest challenges.
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Briefing sessions
According to the former police officer, proper rehearsals, complete idea of the topography and more number of briefing sessions, had helped the police team to make the event a success. He said that around 1,500 to 2,000 police personnel of the total contingent were deployed for the traffic management.
There were around 50 VIPs, including the President, Prime Minister, Central Ministers, Chief Justice of India, Chiefs of Naval Staff from various countries, Chief Minister and Ministers. The IFR schedule was prepared in such a way that all the VIPs and delegates had reached the venue one after the another as per the protocol within a gap of couple of minutes.
The VIPs were put up at various locations. The challenge was to give green channel on one hand for VVIP movement and at the same time also allow public in a staggered fashion, so that they are not inconvenienced. And then repeat the same after the programme, which was a greater challenge, as people become restless and the staff also slacken a bit too. “Rehearsals and route planning had played a key role,” said Mr. Patrudu. According to the former police officer, a lot of thought had gone into parking facility and routes to be followed. The public had to be made aware of the roots and parking facilities, he said.
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“There are number of entries to reach Beach Road, which is an advantage. We had provided about five parking spaces for the general public, while one each for the pass holders and one for naval officials. Since 10 days before the event, we had given wide publicity over the parking and routes,” he recalled.
“In order to avoid traffic congestions along the routes leading to Beach Road, we had appealed to the people to follow the specified routes. For people coming from Madhurawada, Yendada, Visalakshi Nagar and Arilova, we asked them to take the Hanumanthuwaka, Appughar and Park Hotel route. Similarly, for residents from Gajuwaka, One Town, Thatichetlapalem and NAD were asked to come along Collectorate, Siripuram and AIR route,” he said.
He said that since morning crowd started to reach the venue in a large-scale. The Command Control Room was utilised very well. “CCTVs helped to a great extent to manage the crowd, traffic and divert routes.,” he added.