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A jawan stands guard in front of a 45-seater Hockey India League bus in Ranchi on Sunday. The league, which kicks off in Delhi on Monday, will see five teams — Ranchi Rhinos, Mumbai Magicians, Jaypee Punjab Warriors, Uttar Pradesh Wizards and Delhi Waveriders — vying for the title. Ranchi has been allotted 10 matches, including the semi-finals and the final. The AC vehicle will ferry players in the state capital from Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh |
Fortified. That is precisely how one may describe the Rs 180-crore cricket showpiece in Ranchi in the run-up to its ODI debut on January 19.
JSCA officials said the sprawling greens at its International Stadium Complex in Dhurwa would boast a multi-tier security system for two days from January 18, the day of its inauguration. Security forces will begin their drill from January 16 though.
“Roughly, 2,000 jawans and 1,000 police officers will take care of law and order inside and outside the stadium. Security preparations are on in full swing,” informed IG (South Chotanagpur) M.S. Bhatia.
Sources said there would roughly be 33 DSPs, 88 inspectors and 334 ASIs to man the security machinery, besides senior officers.
As of now, no CCTV camera vigil has been planned at the stadium. However, since two TV channels will telecast the India-England match live, sources at JSCA pointed out that over 28 high-definition cameras would be in action.
Bhatia said they would primarily rely on manpower and deployment would be made at strategic locations, including blind spots at the stadium, the hotel hosting the teams and along the road between the hotel and the stadium.
“We will have our own intelligence network, which will be our core strength. But cameras installed by the broadcaster will certainly help us keep real-time track of events. A control room is coming up at the stadium, which will be monitored by senior officers,” he added.
“We have selected well trained men and women for our multiple security rings. Visitors will face no inconvenience during mandatory frisking. There are about four main gates and around one and a half dozen smaller gates, each of which will have doorframe metal detectors. Tickets,with barcodes, will hold key to a gate,” said a police officer, not willing to be named.
IG (provisions) R.K. Mallick, who is the chairman of the security committee, refused to divulge details of other preparations, citing safety reasons. “All I want to say is that the arrangements will be so strict and nothing will skip our eyes,” he said.
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