Lucknow: The Taj Mahal has been placed under unprecedented security, including deploying more armed policemen, preventing people from carrying water bottles or any kind of liquids inside and getting a dossier on everyone living adjacent to the 17th century monument, ahead of Independence Day on Tuesday.
As many as 100 additional personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) have been deployed at various strategic points on the outer periphery of the Taj Mahal, which is visited by thousands of tourists every day.
Sand-bag bunkers have been put up beside the outer entry gates for a round-the clock vigil by police personnel equipped with automatic weapons.
Dipesh Juneja, Agra senior superintendent of police, told IANS: "We were already in the process of enhancing security in and around the Taj, but the terrorist threats for Independence Day prompted us to speed up these arrangements."
"We have also undertaken an exercise to prepare a complete dossier of each and every resident living within 500 metres radius of the monument. This would enable us to promptly spot any new entrants or visitors in the area."
Juneja said he has also urged the civil aviation as well as Indian Air Force authorities to sanitize the air space over Taj Mahal. "Our suggestion is to keep the entire air space within a radius of four-km around the Taj completely free of all types of aircrafts," he pointed out.
While bags are not anyway allowed inside the precincts of the monument, the security agencies have now imposed a ban on bringing in water bottles as well as carrying any other liquids.
Security has been tightened at different airports, railway stations as well as bus stations all over Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which has been on the terrorist target for quite sometime.
At the state capital here, railway authorities have virtually barred entry of all visitors.
"Even though there is no formal ban on entry of visitors, our effort is to dissuade anyone other than bonafide passengers from entering into the railway station" Amitabh Lal, North-Eastern Railway divisional railway manager said.
"We are also urging passengers to reach the station at least an hour before the train departure, because sometimes they may take time to reach their trains on account of the long queues at the security gates," he added.
Northern Railway Divisional Railway Manager R K Gupta said: "All passengers have to go through an intense security check drill, and visitors too would have to go through all that. So it is advisable for people not to go to the station without business."
"These measures were necessitated not only in view of the general security alert for Independence Day, but also on account of the fact that Lucknow is part of the increasing terrorist network," said a senior railway police official.
He was referring to the recovery of baggage belonging to two terrorists arrested last week in New Delhi at the Lucknow railway station on Sunday.
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