The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Hitex campus turns into a fortress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Hitex campus turns into a fortress

Staff Reporter

Special parties play it safe by combing the area around the venue

HYDERABAD: The police have transformed the Hyderabad International Trade Exposition (Hitex) campus -- venue of the annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank beginning here on Wednesday -- veritably into a fortress. The Cyberabad police took over the entire area within a radius of two kilometres around the Hitex campus and the adjoining National Academy of Construction (NAC) site. "Except local residents and people working in these places, no outsider would be allowed inside without a security check," Cyberabad Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy told a press conference on Tuesday.

Each of the 2,500-plus delegates, including the ADB's Board of Governors, was issued a photo identification badge as well as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. Without either of these cards, no delegate would be allowed inside. Every vehicle entering the Hitex premises should have the vehicle pass with security features issued by the police.

A special control room operating with closed circuit televisions would monitor every movement on the campuses of the Hitex and NAC. Bomb disposal teams, sniffer dogs, deep mine search equipments, X-ray scanners to check bags, doorframe metal detectors and hand held metal detectors are being used.

No traffic restrictions

Already, special parties are combing the areas around the venue and organising protest demonstrations in these areas was banned. Around 3,000 men and officers of Cyberabad police -some of them drawn from 10 other districts- are being deployed for security arrangements.

Five main routes to reach the venue from different parts of the city have been identified. "However, there are no traffic restrictions of any type and we assure obstruction-free movement for all people in these routes," Traffic DCP J.G. Murali said. The Hitex grounds have three gates. Every vehicle and person has to enter through the south gate only.

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