01 July,2009 08:10 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
Traffic police wake up from 5-yr snooze on inauguration day and ask for 2 jetties to be built at Bandra, Worli for security reasons
The traffic police seem to have been sleeping all the five years that the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL)
was under active construction.
It had plenty of time to request that two jetties one each at Bandra and Worli be built. But the traffic police did so yesterday on the day the sea link was inaugurated.
The police believe the jetties can be used to keep an eye on the sea link and its surrounding areas.
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"We have requested Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) to construct two jetties to help the police man the sea link," said Sanjay Barve, joint commissioner of police (Traffic). Barve did not explain why his request came so late.
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'Why so late?'
HCC was caught unawares with the move, as the jetties weren't part of the original design.
A senior official from HCC said, "We don't know how to accommodate the jetties and will have to think of places to construct them.
We don't know why the traffic police came up with this idea now, after the sea link has been constructed."
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Ajit Gulabchand, CMD of HCC, also confirmed that there was no plan to build the jetties. But HCC will have no option but to construct the jetties since there's pressure from the state government too.
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The jetties will be built on wooden planks with speedboats, which are in the pipeline, readily available during any emergency, apart from normal patrolling.
ATSu00a0checks
Around a year ago, the Anti-terrorism Squad had visited the BWSL for regular checks, as
it has been mentioned as a vital location of the city.
The officers had reviewed the entry and exit points at both ends, which are possible soft targets, and the approximate time terrorists would need to escape using the Sea Link.
Did you know?
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link u00a0has now been named after u00a0Rajiv Gandhi
