The Odisha Police said it is preparing for the large scale Puri Rath Yatra for this year, which is scheduled from July 16 with an army of over 12,000 security personnel to be deployed at the different points to keep the flood of devotees on check during the festival.
The security measures are multifaceted, involving land, air and sea surveillance, including drones and anti-drone systems to aid in surveillance of airspace. There will also be joint coastal patrol by Indian Navy, Odisha Police Maritime Station and Indian Coast Guard to deal with emergencies and Quick Response Teams (QRTs) will be kept on standby to attend to any emergency.
The meeting to finalise the security strategy was led by the Director General of Police, Odisha Y.B. Khurania with all the meeting points at a high level. The meeting was attended by the officials of CRPF, BSF, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Indian Coast Guard, etc. to organise deployment and operational plan.
There is also a heightened awareness against sabotage activities by setting up bomb disposal squads, teams of dogs trained for sniffing out explosives, Special Operations Group (SOG) forces and Special Tactical Units (STU) trained by the NSG. Post will be sent to high alert areas for continuous monitoring while security agencies will be on their guard during the festival.
Improvisation has been done to prevent happening of any stamped like environment for crowd management, traffic management and barricading and Darshan has been organized properly. With a view to detecting, the police have also issued instructions to carry out stringent vigil on hotels, lodges, dharamshalas, railway stations, bus and other public places in all the local mandalas of Puri.
Also, a campaign for the surveillance of criminals and failure to pay ticket at railway stations and on mobile trains has been introduced ensuring the Rath Yatra is completed peacefully without disruption.