Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Thursday conducted carcade rehearsal ahead of the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Odisha starting April 15. As many as 25 bullet proof cars were a part of the carcade of 200 vehicles, which plied from Biju Patnaik International airport to Janata Maidan.
Police sources said, elaborate security arrangements have been put in place to provide full-proof security cover to the PM during his tour.
The PM is expected to arrive in Bhubaneswar at 3:30 pm on April 15. After spending some time at the Raj Bhawan, he will directly move to Janata Maidan here to attend the party’s National Executive meet. Modi will spend the night at Raj Bhawan. According the itinerary, Modi will offer prayer to Lord Lingaraj the next morning. After attending the meet later in the day, he will fly back to New Delhi on the same day.
DGP KB Singh said a total of 100 platoons of police and two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will be deployed. Apart from this, four IG rank officers will be in-charge of the five sectors in which Bhubaneswar has been divided for security reasons.
Special Protection Group (SPG) officers will also provide support to the four IG rank officers to provide security cover to the Prime Minister. “IG of SPG Yeswant Kumar Jethwa is monitoring the PM’s security arrangement and has been camping in Bhubaneswar,” Singh mentioned. Five units of SOG and 15 SPs will also be stationed in Bhubaneswar for security purposes.
According to sources, security for 106 VVIPs with five different protection covers is being finalised. Of them, 29 are Z-plus protectees.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only one to be under the Special Protection Group (SPG) cover in the Z-plus category, former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP veteran LK Advani and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh are under Z-plus National Security Guard protection.
Similarly, two others are CRPF protectees in Z-plus while 24 VVIPs, including the 13 Chief Ministers of different States, are in plain Z-plus cover.
In the Z category security cover, there are 26 political leaders of whom two are CRPF protectees. In Y-plus, there are four while Y and X categories have 38 and eight VVIPs respectively.
Although security details of 106 protectees are available, there are 288 other delegates whose details are awaited. Sources informed that the State Police is finalising the number of vehicles that are required for ferrying these VVIPs during the two-day meet.