Giving details of elaborate security arrangements for the eleven day Ganpati festival starting today Mumbai police commissioner, Arup Patnaik has denied any specific threat to the commercial capital. Informing  that heightened security measures taken by the police could inconvenience public, he advised people to remain vigilant and inform police of any suspicious activity.

At the Lalbauchga Raja,the grandest of all Pandals,18  close circuit television camera’s  (CCTV) fed with analytics to identify suspicious  movement will be viewed  by Mumbai police headquarters, traffic police and Kala Chowkie  police station. The system will detect suspicious movement raising an alarm if any person is seen lurking in area for longer time, repeatedly visiting the same spot or leaving behind any object. Three Deputy Commissioners of Police and 1000 police men will man the Raja.

According to the police the at normal zoom the CCTV camera’s can cover upto 400m and can be extended to cover an area of upto 1.5 kms. The 360 degree rotation high quality camera’s provide clear night  pictures.

With round the clock police deployment, Patnaik said that leaves of police personnel have been banned during the festival and advised mandals to install CCTV camera’s on their own.

On visarjan  days 2,5,6,7 and 11, 34 roads will be closed  for traffic movement and 52 roads will be one way. Parking will be banned on 60 roads and heavy vehicles will not ply on 13 roads and additionally there will be surprise nakabandi’s. Directives will be issued through announcements on visarjan routes.

For the final visarjan  day ,five control rooms have been set up . The traffic police will be helped by volunteers from NSS, NCC, home guards, civil defence, traffic wardens, jal rakshaks and even municipal school teachers, social organizations and NGO’s  at 88  immersion points.70 ambulance vans will be made available during this time.

Besides,10 companies of State Reserve Police Force , three companies of Rapid Action Force, cadet officers and recruits  are also part of heightened security enforcement.

As against 12,000Sarvajanik Ganesh Mandals this year there are 14,000 .Similarly as against 60,000 Household Ganpati’s last year this year there are 1.25 lakh Household Ganpati’s this year.

The Lalbaugcha Raja control room no’s  02224937755, 02224937746, 02224937747 have been linked to main control no’s 022-22620111 and 022-22625020.