Bhubaneswar, April 5: A special police battalion will now provide security cover to vital installations and VIPs in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The first batch consisting of 501 sepoys today participated in a passing out parade at the Urban Police and Traffic Training Institute in Bhubaneswar.

Director-general of police (DGP), Manmohan Praharaj, said: “These personnel were provided advanced training for nine months.”

They would be deployed at vital establishments such as residences of the governor and chief minister, state secretariat, legislative Assembly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Bhubaneswar and Orissa High Court in Cuttack.

At present, armed local police, also known as armed police reserve, guard these installations in the twin cities.

These sepoys have been provided training at the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) training centre at Mundali in Cuttack.

This training would help them in safeguarding vital establishments and shield VIPs during their visit to various places.

“Apart from guarding vital installations, the special force will be deployed for VIPs, who have ‘Z’ category and ‘Y’ category security,” said B. K. Sharma, the commissioner of police.

“These sepoys have been taught to handle sophisticated weapons such as self-loading rifles (SLR) and AK-47. They have also been provided training in handling explosives. These constable got jungle warfare training from the special operation group (SOG) training centre in Chandaka,” said Sarat Chandra Bishoyi, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), training.

Bishoyi said they had been trained in fire fighting and maintaining law and order. Besides they have got anti-Naxalite training to resist attacks if any such incidents occur in the twin cities.

The police had sent a proposal in 2008 to the government for setting the special security forces for guarding these important structures in the city.

The state government approved the proposal in 2009 and the recruitment was started on March 4, 2010. The training for first batch started from July 2008 and was completed in April 2011.

A total of 1,161 persons were selected out of which 501 were trained in the first batch and the rest would be trained in the next phase.

“They passed out today and will be deployed at these vital installations in next two to three days. After they join duty, the armed police reserve will be relieved and deployed in other fields such as traffic management in the commissionerate area,” said Bishoyi.

From the second phase, some of the remaining personnel would be given sepoy training while others would be taught activities such as carpentry.