With two high profile international gatherings on the Gujarat land approaching closer the state government has decided to set further tighten the security arrangements along the coast and on-land. The government has decided to set up special control room to coordinate with three wings of the armed forces on the security.
The state hosts Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) during January 8-9 followed by high-profile business summit, Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2015 on January 11-13, each being attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi accompanied by world leaders from political and business circles.
The chief secretary of the state, D J Pandian, on Friday morning convened a high-level meeting of the armed forces along with heads of state police to brief them about the two summits and decide on setting up a special control room for security purpose.
The meeting, chaired by Pandian was attended by Major General S K Bhanot, Air Vice Marshal A Nabh and Additional DGP Shivanand Jha among other senior officials at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.
However, according to the government sources the plan to set up a special control room to coordinate with all the three wings of armed forces with state police was pre-decided and was not influenced by the boat incident near Porbandar. Coastal security becomes crucial as the state has the longest coastline of about 16,000 kms providing lucrative passage for terrorists to enter the state from overseas.
Also, a mock drill was conducted to check the security preparedness at the venue for both the events, which will have dignitaries like US Secretary of State John Kerry, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Vice President Hamid Ansari and representatives of over 100 countries among others. Considering the galaxy of high-profile personalities visiting the state, the intelligence agencies have cautioned about high threat perception for the events.
The aim is to keep strict vigil on the movements across the state and quickly respond to any emergency or suspicious activity happening during the events.