Incident-free NYE, say City Police; One dead in road accident

CHENNAI: City Police force came together to ensure an incident-free new year's celebration in Chennai City.

While their moves were considered overzealous in certain quarters, the City Police's move to restrict revelry hours in the night clubs and pubs and shutting off access to beaches and strict enforcement on roads ensured that there were no major incidents involving revelers in Chennai city on New Year's Day.

Except for the death of a 47-year-old man on Arcot road near Valasaravakkam, who lost control of his two-wheeler and rammed into an electric post leading to his death, there were no major road accidents in Chennai city police limits.

The deceased, Prabhu was a resident of Vigneshwara Nagar near Porur. He was returning home after work when the accident happened, police said.

As many as 16,000 police personnel were on duty in Chennai city limits to ensure that there were no major incidents as a new year dawned.

"Our personnel checked more than 13,000 vehicles from 8 pm on Saturday. 360 vehicles were seized as the drivers indulged in drunk driving. Apart from this, we also seized 572 vehicles, whose drivers indulged in over speeding, rash driving, helmet less riding, triples ride and other offences, " a senior police officer said.

Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal said that planning for policing duties on New year's eve began a week in advance. "We prepared our women and men psychologically to be result oriented and professional yet polite and firm. Vehicle check-points location, mobile surveillance teams, rotation of manpower to avoid fatigue, use of drones in isolated areas, good publicity of measures being taken all helped. All credit goes to our policemen and women who manned the streets, " the commissioner said.

City Police was also widely appreciated by the public in social media for their efforts. "I travelled at 12. 30 a.m. Never seen such a peaceful New year's celebrations in Chennai in the past 20 years. Congratulations to citizens & the police alike, " Congress leader Americai V Narayanan tweeted.