July 21 rally: Strict vigil in place; 9 roads to become one-way from 4 am to 9 pm

Kolkata: To avoid any untoward incident during the July 21 Martyrs' Day programme, Kolkata Police has strengthened security measures and made special arrangements for crowd management, maintenance of law and order situation and traffic arrangements. About nine roads in the city have been made one-way from 4 am till 9 pm on the day of the programme.

Security measures have been beefed up further keeping in mind the recent incident of security breach at the Chief Minister's residence. Commissioner of Police (CP), Kolkata, Vineet Kumar Goyal, on Tuesday visited the area and also checked the dais from where Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chairperson, Mamata Banerjee, would deliver her speech.

"We have been protecting this place since the construction of the dais started. All sorts of arrangements like crowd management, law and order situation, traffic arrangements and others have been done. We have taken all sorts of precautionary measures keeping the recent incident of trespassing in mind," said Goyal.

According to sources, the area around the dais has been divided into about 15 zones. Each of the zones will be under supervision of a Deputy Commissioner (DC) rank officer. Police personnel of specialised force, equipped with sophisticated weapons, will keep a strict vigil in and around the dais from the high-rise buildings in the area. Other than the DCs, who will be posted in the security zones, several DCs will be looking after the law and order situation in the city. Additional CPs will supervise the entire arrangements.

Apart from security aspects, special traffic arrangements have been made for July 21. While Amherst Street and Brabourne Road have been marked for South-bound movement, Bidhan Sarani between K C Sen Street and Vivekananda Road, College Street, Strand Road between Hare Street and Raja Woodmunt Street, Bentinck Street and Rabindra Sarani between B K Paul Avenue and Lalbazar Street have been marked for North-bound movement. BB Ganguly street has been marked for West-bound movement and New CIT Road has been selected for West-bound movement. This apart, no goods vehicles will be allowed to enter the city from 3 am till 8 pm. Parking of vehicles will not be allowed in and around the AJC Bose Road between Hastings Crossing and Cathedral Road, Hospital Road, Queenaway, Cathedral Road, Casuarina Avenue and Lovers Lane. Movement of all kinds of vehicles, including tram cars, will be temporarily suspended or diverted along the line of route of the processions from 4 am to 8 pm or as and when considered.