Puri, June 27 : An unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath scheduled to begin on July 1 next.
Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal said on Monday that security in air, sea and land has been taken care of with the use of anti-terrorist force.
The administration, he said, is expecting a huge turnout since after a gap of two years the devotees are allowed to participate in the Rath yatra.
Keeping this in view 180 platoons of police force will be deployed to operate under five main divisions like Chariot pulling, regulated movement of pilgrim crowd, systematic darshan of deities, and overall security of the city and the venue of the fete.
He said 1000 experienced police personnel will be engaged in Pahandi, VIP security, an inner and outer cordon of chariots and during the pulling of three chariots.
Puri town and Badadanda had been divided into ten zones and 29 sectors.
While coast guard vessels will patrol the sea coast drone cameras will be pressed into service to monitor the situation from the air from two control rooms.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and government railway police (GRP) will also deploy hundreds of personnel for the fete, the DGP said.
A large number of CCTV cameras have been installed along the Badadanda and other strategically important places for a close vigil.
IGP Amitabh Thakur has been placed in charge of parking and movement of vehicular traffic.
The DGP on Monday reviewed the security arrangements in presence of senior officers including Additional DGP (Railways) Sudhansu Sarangi, ADG Sanjeeb Panda, IGP central range Narasingh Bhol, IGP Satyabrat Bhoi and Debdutta Singh.
Soon after the review meeting, the DGP along with Puri Superintendent of police K.Vishal Singh and senior officers visited the Srimandir, Pahandi path and parikrama.
