Officials said that a total of 74 CCTV cameras have been installed to keep a tab on the movement of the crowd in the city. Besides, 24 Heavy Radio Flying Squads will be roaming around the city and 46 watch towers have been built to keep an eye on the crowd.

Kolkata Police has set in place tight security arrangements from Saturday till the immersion on October 19 for the Durga Puja celebrations. These include 13,000 police personnel being pressed into service and installation of CCTV cameras.

“We are enforcing an extra layer of surveillance across the city during the Puja. Foolproof security arrangements have been made to thwart any untoward incident. Though there is no specific terror threat, security has been increased. Deployment of police personnel will start from Saturday,” said a senior police officer.

Officials said that a total of 74 CCTV cameras have been installed to keep a tab on the movement of the crowd in the city. Besides, 24 Heavy Radio Flying Squads will be roaming around the city and 46 watch towers have been built to keep an eye on the crowd.

Kolkata has 2,509 puja pandals, and police pickets have been set up outside 400 of them, said police. A total of 8,000 police personnel will be deployed outside the pandals in the city.

“Police forces will be deployed at all important puja pandals from Chatrurthi, which falls on Saturday. From Sunday, police officers will be deployed in three shifts. First shift will begin from 8am to 4pm, the second shift from 3.30pm till late at night and third shift will start from midnight till next day morning,” said Joint CP (headquarters) Supratim Sarkar.

Around 24 police ambulance will be parked at some crucial points. Kolkata Police has also set up a control room with a helpline number 9002999999 which will be active from Saturday. Seven Missing Squads will be deployed to assist people in case they lose track of their loved ones. Extra force will be deployed at the 23 metro stations.

Five thousand traffic police personnel will be on the road to maintain smooth vehicular movement. Kolkata Police has also urged the vehicle owners to write their names and contact number on paper and stick it on the windshields so that the driver car can be contacted if the police wants to move the car.

“Due to the Majherhat bridge collapse, traffic management in the port and south suburban area will be a challenge,” added an official.