Anti-terror units roped in for IPL final match in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: A total of 2,850 police personnel, including two anti-terror Octopus units, will be deployed in and around the Uppal stadium during the IPL T-20 cricket final match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, which is to be held in the city on Sunday.

A joint command and control room have been established opposite the G6 box of the stadium to monitor 300 closed circuit cameras installed at various locations in and around the stadium, including vehicle checkpoints and parking lots. Bomb detection teams will continuously conduct anti-sabotage checks till the end of the match.

In view of the presence of a large number of spectators, the number of ambulances available for emergency medical services has been increased from three to eight. The number of fire engines has been increased from four to five.

Additionally, independent SHE Teams have been formed to keep those harassing women in check, while separate teams have been put together to supervise vendors.

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh M. Bagawat said, “Effective bandobast arrangements have been made in coordination with various wings like the Armed Reserve special parties, the rope team inside the stadium and play-area squads.

He said bomb detection teams, special operations teams, SHE Teams, mounted police, Vajra and tear gas parties, Octopus were in place. Armed Reserve police had been deployed as well as CCS teams.

Four platoons of the TS Special Police would provide armed guard at all entry and check points. Besides, the traffic and the law and order police would be present in large numbers, Mr Bhagwat said.

Parking

Those holding entry passes from outer Gates 1 and 2 to enter from Ramanthapur (LG godown/ Modern Bakery) and park vehicles in Parking A & B inside the stadium. If this is full, they may head towards Gate 11 via Gate 1 and park their vehicles in Lot B at the NSL parking space.

Special-needs ticket-holders to arrive from Ramanthapur Road, enter the stadium through outer Gate 3 (service entry) after parking vehicles in Parking B.

Pass-holders for entry through gates G4 to G10 to arrive from Habsiguda-Uppal main road (via Ek Minar) and park vehicles in either the GenPact parking area or the Ramanthapur Church ground or in Sakthi Soaps’ general parking place.

Traffic curbs

Heavy vehicles approaching from LB Nagar and Warangal will not be allowed towards Habsiguda during the match. They will be diverted as per the instructions provided by the traffic police. Heavy goods vehicles travelling between Uppal crossroads from ECIL, Kushaiguda, Cherlapally will be diverted via Mallapur Bridge, Chengicherla crossroads (Warangal route), and LB Nagar junctions.

Online blackmarketing leaves fans disappointed

A day before Sunday’s IPL final match between the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Hyderabad, tickets were being blatantly blackmarketed online. A Facebook page called ‘Spread the word’ advertised the sale of tickets and demanded Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,500 more per ticket.

Cricket fan Rajesh Vamsharaj, who interacted with a blackmarketer, said, “I was offered three tickets on the ground floor and three on the south terrace. While the actual cost of each ticket is Rs 2,500, he was selling it at Rs 4,500.”

Mr Vamsharaj said he had reported the phone number to the cyber crime police.

Tickets for the ground floor (east) next to the boundary line were being sold for `5,000 against the actual cost of Rs 2,000.

Meanwhile, Events-Now, a private company authorised by the BCCI (Board for Cricket Control in India), sold the third lot of e-tickets on Saturday. The tickets were quickly sold out, leaving hundreds of cricket fans disappointed.

“It looks like a mammoth fraud. Eight of us were trying to book tickets for nearly one and a half hours, from 2.02 pm till 3.30 pm. We couldn’t buy a single ticket. We had to network and reach out to the stadium and HCA employees and finally we managed to buy few tickets,” said Mr Samuel Sudhakar.

Another cricket fan, Mr S. Ravi, said, “Even in the initial few minutes of online booking, the website of EventsNow stated ‘requested number of seats are not available, please select another category or stand’. This was the same for all categories.”