Come December and entry into Maharashtra Mantralaya will get more restrictive than usual with stricter and more sophisticated security protocols in place. The measures include access control, CCTV enabled facial recognition, and use of drones and GPS based RFID cards to avoid untoward incidents involving visitors.
The contract for this security upgradation has been allotted to a Mumbai-based agency, which is expected to complete the project by December. The move comes in the wake of recent incidents involving anti-social elements making reels on the premises and increased footfall on cabinet meeting days.
The new security measures aim to address concerns about unauthorised access and potential security risks at Mantralaya, while also streamlining visitor management to improve efficiency and maintain the integrity of government operations. A senior home department official said, “We have registered a footfall of over 3,000 on cabinet meeting days when almost all ministers are present in Mantralaya. We find this risky for crowd management and VVIP security.”
The project has received approval from a high-power committee chaired by the chief secretary, and ₹41.75 crore has been allocated. Of this, ₹1.64 crore is allocated for the CCTV network, ₹40.57 lakh for drones, ₹6.63 crore for command and control rooms, and ₹6.20 crore for a customised pass management system.
Earlier, the mantralaya administration had restricted visitor vehicles and established counters for departmental letters at entry gates. Now, the second phase is set to introduce a visitor management system at all gates, limiting entry to those without specific reasons for visiting Mantralaya, enforcing time limit of visits, and checking repeat visitors.
“These repeat visitors wander through various departments, disturbing employees and officials, and fostering a ‘middlemen’ culture that is detrimental to the government’s image. Such individuals will be barred from entering the premises,” the official said.
Each floor will have automatic flap barriers so that the person holding a pass for a specific floor or department cannot get entry elsewhere. Entry will be given only after approval from the officer who the visitor wants to meet. And the visitor will have to exit the building after the time slot allocated on the radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled cards, gets over. “We are also developing an app that will facilitate booking slots in advance for the pass,” said the official.
Even those entering the building in VVIP cars will be monitored. “The control and command rooms will have information about the available parking lot. Through this, we would have information about the people entering the building in MLA cars,” the officer revealed, adding that they are bringing in these measures to control the daily crowd at the Mantralaya which was swelling beyond the capacity of the premises.
