Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Security stepped up for Manmohan, Sonia visit

— Photo: A.Muralitharan

Police personnel assemble at the Chennai airport on Thursday as part of the security arrangements put in place for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit on Friday.

CHENNAI: Elaborate security arrangements have been made in Chennai and its suburbs ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Friday.

Besides the function venues and convoy routes of the VVIP, Central and State intelligence agencies brought vital installations and select areas of public gathering under their surveillance.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to participate in the special convocation and sesquicentennial celebrations of the Madras University and launch ‘Apollo Reach Hospitals’ through video-conferencing at the Indian Institute of Technology. Congress president Sonia Gandhi would also participate in these functions, police sources said.

“We are making strong security arrangements. A comprehensive bandobust scheme has been drawn up. Vigil along the coast and other vulnerable areas will be as per the prescribed security standards,” Director-General of Police K.P. Jain said.

Apart from the Special Protection Group that provides close proximity security to the Prime Minister, hundreds of police personnel have been deployed at the airport and other vantage points. Sources in the intelligence said an alert had been sounded along the border and coastal districts in view of the movement of some extremist elements, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

“The SPG and other security agencies convened advance security liaison meetings days ahead of the visit of Dr. Singh and Ms. Gandhi. Though there are routine alert messages coming in from various sources about threat perceptions emanating from banned outfits, there is nothing specific in this visit,” an official said. The sleuths of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad conducted searches to prevent use of hi-tech explosives such as programmable timer devices, he added.

Commissioner of Police R. Sekar said anti-sabotage checks were conducted along the convoy route and function venues. “Tight security will be maintained at the two indoor functions since some of the VIPs came under the high-risk category.”

Motorists in the southern suburbs of Chennai encountered severe traffic problems on Thursday as the police conducted a rehearsal of the convoy movement on Thursday morning. As a result, traffic was stopped at all intersections along Grand Southern Trunk Road, leading to a pile-up of vehicles at many spots.

At Irumbuliyur, long distance State government buses and those coming from mofussil areas were stopped at the junction on GST Road by traffic police and diverted via Chennai Bypass. But for the passengers who were heading to the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus, Koyambedu, others on their way to Tambaram and beyond, alighted at Chennai Bypass.

These commuters were accommodated in Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses heading to Tambaram and other parts of the city. Normal flow of traffic was restored only after the rehearsal was complete.

There was a massive traffic snarl on the road overbridge at MIT Gate, Chromepet, around the same time. A lorry and a bus ferrying students to a self-financing engineering college in West Tambaram were trapped in a trench as a result of the road digging works as part of the underground drainage project of the Pallavaram Municipality.

A recovery vehicle came to the spot more than one hour and the vehicles were removed. It was only then normal flow of traffic was restored on the bridge.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi landed at Chennai airport from Coimbatore by a special aircraft around 8 p.m. on Thursday.

She was received by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Union Ministers from the State, including T. R. Baalu and other State Ministers, including Durai Murugan, Parithi Ilamvazhuthi and K. Ponmudy.

Her convoy left the airport around 8.10 p.m.

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