Two years ago, a murder on Second Main Road in Venketachalam Nagar in Thirumullavoyal shook up the locality. Since a decade and a half ago, when it was developed as a residential locality, Venketachalam Nagar had not witnessed crime of this magnitude.
Following this shocking incident, residents of the neighbourhood and surrounding areas have been working towards one goal: setting up a permanent police booth in the neighbourhood.
On January 2, this dream will come true. On that day, a police booth will be opened on Pachaiamman Koil Main Road, which connects Chennai–Tiruvallur High (CTH) Road with the Grand Northern Trunk (GNT) Road at Red Hills, in Venketachalam Nagar.
“The police booth is a teamwork involving many residents welfare associations (RWAs) in the region. The police were supportive of the initiative,” says Giri Ravanan, secretary, Veketachalam Nagar Residents Welfare Association.
Though residents have been nurturing the dream of a police booth for two years, the definitive move towards having one happened in April this year, when RWAs in the region had a meeting with the Thirumullavoyal police. During the meeting, the RWAs insisted that such a booth be set up to ensure better surveillance in the localities.
Subsequently, residents from neighbouring areas along the stretch, including Kamalam Nagar, Lalithaambal Nagar, Masilamani Nagar, Ethiamman Nagar and Venketachalam formed a residents forum named as Combined Residents Welfare Association Forum, which would take up the issue and major civic problems in the region.
Forming groups of four or five, residents attended to various works related to the establishment of a police booth, including generation of funds, paper work, meeting police and civic officials including Tangedco officials to ensure supply of power to run the CCTV cameras. The CCTV cameras were provided by the residents of Kamalam Nagar and Lalithaambal Nagar. Residents of Venketachalam Nagar provided furniture and the booth itself.
Located at the intersection of Third Main Road and Pachaiamman Koil Main Road, the small police booth can accommodate three police personnel and tables and chairs for them to work.
The booth has two CCTV cameras that are located at opposite directions — one facing Red Hills and another facing CTH Road — to capture the movement of vehicles and persons using the busy Pachaiamman Koil Main Road.
A special feature of the CCTV cameras is that they have movement track recorders, which help to runs the cameras automatically once they notice any movement up to a distance of 50 metres from its location. The cameras have a storage capacity of 45 days and can operate round-the-clock.
At present, the police patrol makes at least two to three trips to the areas along the busy stretch every day. Initially, after the booth is opened, a few police personnel will spend time at the booth. During the day and night, the routine rounds by the police patrol team will continue.
Later, police personnel will be deployed permanently at the booth. Shortage of police personnel at the Thirumullavoyal police station is the reason for the delay in deploying policemen at the booth immediately.
“Once the booth is opened, it will be handed over to the Thirumullavoyal police as they are authorised to run the facility. However, we will provide basic facilities like water to the facility,” said S. Aravazhi, president, Veketachalam Nagar Residents Welfare Association.
The significance of the booth lies in the fact that Pachaiamman Koil Main Road connects two key arterial roads (CTH Road and GNT Road) and thereby providing access to major neighbourhoods like Avadi, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Red Hills, Puzhal, Kolathur, Korattur and Villivakkam.
Also, police sources said the stretch had many easy exit and entry routes for criminals to escape to neighbouring districts after committing crime in city's posh areas like Anna Nagar, Thirumagalam, Kilpauk and Nolambur.
The booth will help monitor these exit routes.
Published - December 30, 2016 02:57 pm IST
