Mumbai police get three armoured vehicles to tackle terrorism

Stung by terror during the November 26 terror strikes, the city police received a shot in the arm in the form of 207 new vehicles, including three armoured vehicles, which were inducted into the police force on Monday.

The city police received three armoured Rakshak vehicles, 150 motorcycles, 20 jeeps, nine vans, 21 towing trucks and four buses, Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan said.

"There are three armoured vehicles being inducted today and two more will be obtained so that all the five regional controls in the city has an armoured vehicle," he said.

The city police would also be getting 12 buses totally in order to ferry large groups of police personnel more effectively, Sivanandhan said.

The total cost of the vehicles was approximately Rs four crore of which the three armoured vehicles, of Mahindra Rakshak make, had cost close to Rs three crore, he said.

The police force was also training 100 personnel, in collaboration with other security forces in each regional zone of the city, and equipping them with latest weaponry so that attacks from foreign shores could be tackled effectively, the Commissioner said.

"These squads will be equipped and trained so that if there is an attack like November 26 in the future we can tackle it in an hour and send back the terrorists in body bags," Sivanandhan said.

The Police Commissioner also suggested the patrol jeeps could be fitted with bulletproof glass in the future to protect police personnel inside them during terror strikes.

"There have also been two high speed motorboats given to Raigad and Thane to monitor the coast and the next one should be in Mumbai," Sivanandhan said, adding that more such boats were expected to be delivered to the police by Goa Shipyards by September.

"The last attack was from the sea route but the next attack could be from the land or aerial route and we should concentrate on all areas," he said.

After seeing the design of the new motorcycles, Home Minister Jayant Patil said they had sought the opinion of a vehicle design expert to include methods to keep equipment on the motorcycle to tackle emergencies .

"There should be facilities to keep all equipment needed to tackle an emergency on the motorcycle and the personnel manning it should be capable of handling almost any situation since they are often the first on the spot," Patil said.

The new motorcycles, equipped with sirens, are to be distributed among police stations in the city and will help in the intelligence gathering and policing, officials said.