Mumbai: On account of the New Year’s eve celebration on Tuesday night, approximately 40,000 policemen will be seen on the streets guarding Mumbaikars.
The team includes policemen from the Special Branch (SB), State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), Quick Response Team (QRT), Force One and Riot Control Police (RCP), patrolling the city streets from December 31 to January 1 to ensure that there are no untoward incidents.
Moreover, this year the Mumbai Police will pay special attention to ensure the safety of women and prevent drunk driving in the city. Policemen will have special deployment near the crowded beaches like Girgaum, Mahim, Versova, Madh, Gorai and Juhu Chowpatty along with the Gateway of India and Powai Lake.
Special police teams have been formed, who will roam around the city in plain clothes, to keep an eye on the party hotspots. Moreover, police will be extra vigilant near hotels, where party hoppers visit to ring in their new year with a bang.
Music permits allowing speakers till midnight on December 31 have been issued and the excise department has given permission to serve alcohol in hotels till 5 am on January 1, only to those who had requested the Mumbai police in advance, said Pranay Ashok, deputy commissioner of police (operations).
Ashok said, “Our main focus is on beaches, the parking lots at five-star hotels, pubs and places where revellers will gather in large numbers. Several specialised teams and policemen in plain clothes, including women’s safety squads, will keep an eye on every place. The police teams will do live monitoring of the city through more than 5,000 CCTV cameras.”
Nakabandis will be put in place at more than 100 locations, where policemen will be equipped with breath analysers and all the vehicles will be strictly checked.
There is no specific terror threat, but anti-sabotage measures are in place, along with coastal security and intelligence machinery stationed strategically for immediate response in case of emergencies.
The arrangements will be personally checked by DCP level rank officers and all holidays/weekly offs of all ranks of police personnel have been cancelled.
Every police station has been asked to check on people who have come to the city from elsewhere, especially from abroad, and are staying in hotels or have rented flats, added an official.
Traffic movement in focus
Mumbai Traffic Police will take stringent actions against motorists found driving rashly or under the influence of alcohol. Additionally, traffic diversions have been put in place, where four roads -- North-bound arm of the NS Road in South Mumbai, Mount Mary Road, Cane Road and St Baptist Road in Bandra will be no-entry zones from 7 pm on December 31 till 6 am on the next day. Similarly, South-bound arm of CSMT Road, Mount Mary Road, Cane Road, Pereira Road and St Baptist Road in Bandra will be made one-way for vehicular movement.
The police will set up more than 100 checkpoints at busy junctions, barricade highways and nakabandi on the major western and eastern highways to monitor motorists, said an official.
Extra safety miles from Ola
The app-cab aggregator, Ola, will be deploying hundreds of safety scouts in the city on New Year’s eve. This team will comprise of both male and female personnel, specially trained by Ola to help provide safety and mobility support to citizens in high traffic areas on December 31.
Additionally, Ola is also deploying quick response teams, a special fleet of cars with a first aid kit, and trained personnel to attend to emergency situations through the night. Ola’s quick response team cars in the city, will also have lady police constables on-board to support existing police fleet and attend to any SOS calls from women.
These initiatives follow Ola’s national roll-out of its AI-enabled safety feature, ‘Guardian’ which uses real-time data from rides to automatically detect irregular trip activity and triggers a phone call by Ola’s Safety Response Team. Ola’s efforts to deploy on-ground safety personnel reinforces its commitment to foster a safe mobility experience for our citizens.
No parking will be allowed on following roads from 7pm on Dec 31 to 6am on Jan 1
PJ Ramchandani Marg
Mahakavi Bhushan Marg
Aadam Street
BEST Marg
Haji N A Azmi Marg
Henry Road
CSMT Road
Shahid Bhagat Singh Road (Colaba Causeway)
Mount Mary Road
Pereira Road
Cane Road
Mount Carmel Road
Chapel Road
John Baptist Road
St Sebastian Road
Rebello Road
Dr Peter Dias Road
St Paul Road
