Coimbatore City Police are gearing up with an elaborate security scheme to be put in place in all busy shopping areas ahead of Deepavali to ensure a crime-free shopping experience for people.
Compared to the previous year, city police have planned to increase the number of watch towers to strengthen the surveillance in shopping areas.
In addition, shopping areas such as Raja Street, Oppanakkara Street, DB Road, TV Samy Road, Gandhipuram, 100 Feet Road and Cross Cut Road will come under an enhanced surveillance with the vigil of the CCTV cameras.
Around 600 police personnel are likely to be deployed exclusively for crowd control, crime prevention and traffic regulation in the core shopping areas. All these areas will have a public address system that could reach out to a longer distance to keep sensitising the public.
The city would be under a tight security blanket for a fortnight beginning Monday. Four Deputy Commissioners of Police, around 10 Assistant Commissioners of Police and 2,000-odd personnel of the city police would be on duty round the clock on a rotation basis, City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan told The Hindu.
Special teams from the crime wing in plain clothes will undertake lurking beats and they will be equipped with a dossier on habitual offenders, ex-convicts and history-sheeters.
Beginning Monday, police plan to barricade one side of the roads for safe movement of pedestrians and leave the rest of the road space for the free flow of traffic.
Police personnel in plain clothes will also monitor all the three malls to prevent incidents of crime.
Meanwhile, police have urged people coming for shopping to avoid carrying huge cash with them and instead carry debit/credit cards.
Police also advised people to wear minimum jewellery and avoid keeping valuables in parked cars.