Bengal Govt makes tight security arrangements for Under-17 World Cup

Kolkata, Oct 14: The West Bengal Government has made tight security arrangements at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK) for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. The stadium, refurbished at a huge cost, will host ten matches, including the final, across six days. The first set of matches were held on October 8. The stadium gates will be opened two hours before the matches and all tickets will be scanned before letting ticket-holders enter the stadium. Once a ticket-holder leaves the stadium, the person won’t be allowed in again and spectators will not be allowed to carry bags, newspapers, cold drinks and bottles of water inside. Spectators will be allowed to carry raincoats and women will be allowed to carry handbags inside. There will be 110 ticket-checking points, all of which will have doorframe metal detectors passing through which will be compulsory for spectators. Spectators will be allowed to carry in flags of countries they are supporting but no sticks or stick-like objects will be allowed. To avoid any confusion, the tickets for all the six days (10 matches) are of different colours. Only FIFA-approved vendors will sell drinking water at the stadium and the State Government will distribute water pouches free of cost at the parking venue. Parking space for 2,600 cars is being provided. To avoid unnecessary congestion, quite a few areas have been marked as no-parking zones. Police have been trained in such a way that, if necessary, all 66,000 spectators can be evacuated within eight minutes. To secure the area, 260 CCTV cameras have been installed and a police control room has been opened inside the stadium. The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate has tied up with two prominent hospitals in Salt Lake to admit any spectator who may need treatment. Smoking will be banned at the stadium premises. UNI