Modi-Xi meet: 43 special officers, 10,000 cops on call

Forty-three special officers, cultural programmes at 34 locations on the route to be taken by the motorcade, 10,000 policemen and 500 CCTV cameras. The city is all geared up to receive Chinese President Xi Jinping who will arrive on Friday to attend an India-China summit at Mamallapuram.

The President’s motorcade will not take the Kathipara flyover and the flyover near IIT Madras as it will be routed along the right lane of GST Road from airport to the city.

The state government has enlisted nine IAS officers and 34 other senior officers drawn from various departments as nodal and coordinating officers for the Modi-Xi meet. Chief secretary K Shanmugam issued an order to this effect on Monday.

These officers will ensure a “hassle-free and smooth voyage” of leaders and delegation of both countries. The order also listed out 34 reception venues enroute Mamallapuram, beginning with Gate 5 of Chennai Airport and the entrance to Shore Temple.

The reception venues include Hotel Trident, CSI Christ Church, Alandur, office of the MSME, Guindy, Dheenran Chinnamalai Statue, near SPIC, ITC Grand Chola, near Raj Bhavan between Highways Research Station and Gandhi Mandapam, Madhya Kailash, opposite to Tidel Park, Kandanchavadi, OMR and Pallavaram Radial Road junction, Karapakkam tank, Sholinganallur from Toll Plaza to ECR.

On the East Coast Road, the venues are Panaiyur, ECR Toll Gate, Kanathur, Muttukadu, Hotel Taj, Kovalam, Thiruvidanthai, Crocodile Park, near Nemmeli desalination plant, Pattipulam, Tiger Cave, Mamallapuram entrance, Mamallapuram town panchayat office, Arjuna’s Penance and Pancha Rathas.

As the motorcade moves from airport to ITC Grand Chola and from the hotel to Mamallapuram, around 10,000 policemen will stand guard along the route.

The policemen, drawn from about 10 districts, have already arrived for the security duty. The police have also installed 500 CCTV cameras, besides vehicles fitted with CCTV speed dome cameras at strategic locations on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) and East Coast Road (ECR) at locations where there were no cameras.

There will be a multi-layer security along the route to be taken by the Chinese President and his delegation. The security at the summit venue in Mamallapuram will be handled by the state police, special battalion of state police, Chinese security personnel and Special Protection Group (SPG) of the Indian Prime Minister.

Police will seal almost 500 roads and streets with access to arterial OMR and ECR from Thursday. The cops have brought about 2,500 barricades mostly from the north Chennai and Central Chennai for crowd control. All guests staying in leading hotels and staff have been scrutinised before letting them in.

Chinese security personnel have already assessed the route and the arrangements and also held talks with the state government departments with respect to security arrangements.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/modi-xi-meet-43-special-officers-10000-cops-on-call/articleshow/71514129.cms