Mumbai: Two drills a day to keep terror incidents away

The drill in progress at CSMT on Wednesday

The city police are conducting anti-terror drills twice a week to check preparedness in case of any untoward situation. Apart from Mumbai police, special forces such as the quick response teams, Force One are also participating in the drills which was started by Satya Narayan Chaudhary, joint commissioner for law and order, in mid-December last year.

"We have been doing it twice every week to check the preparedness in case of any untoward incidents. The checks are also helping us improve and fix lacunae, if any," Chaudhary told mid-day. Sources said that the Mumbai police are holding these drills at important and crowded locations such as shopping malls, railway stations and government installations among other public places that see heavy footfall.

As part of the initiative, a drill was conducted at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on Wednesday. Additional Commissioner (south region) Dilip Sawant and Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 1) Hari Balaji were among the top police officers who were present apart from QRT and Force One teams.

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The checks

Officers said that during the drills, they have found various locations where CCTV cameras were not working and the authority concerned was informed accordingly. As part of the drill, cops also checked fire safety equipment, exit-entry points. An officer said, "At important locations, we also check to see if there are any dark spots from where one can enter the premises without getting notices and fix the issue by conveying the same to the authorities concerned."

The local police are also involved in the drill to check their readiness in handling such situations and coordination with nearby hospitals. "If any emergency number displayed as that of the hospital is not found to be working, the officials are alerted," the cop added.

Cops have also noticed the emergence of rumours while conducting some drills, which leads to panic among the citizens. There were instances of videos and pictures of heavy police bandobast for the drill being shared on social media. A police officer said, "In view of this, we are informing the control room about the location of the drills and in case anybody calls about the same, those at the control room have been asked to stop them to curb spread of rumour."

Dec
Month when the drills started