Kashmir impact: Tight vigil in key Odisha installations

Security arrangements have been tightened in defence and non-defence installations as well as other important places in Odisha following the recent Kashmir developments.

“Police in all the districts where the installations are located have been directed to remain on high alert. They have been instructed to a keep a tight vigil particularly on defence installations and important religious places”, state home department sources said on Friday.

Odisha is home to a number of key defence facilities. They include country’s two premier missile testing centres – one at the APJ Abdul Kalam island(previously the Wheelers Island) in north Odisha Bhadrak district and another at Chandipur in neighbouring Balasore district. Besides, there is INS Chilka, the cadet training centre of the Indian Navy located at the Chilka lake, Asia’s biggest brackish water lagoon and an important base of the Indian Air Force at Choudwar near Cuttack city.

Saintala in western Odisha Bolangir district also houses an ordnance factory. If home department sources are to be believed, security had also been beefed up in two major shrines in the state – the Jagannath temple in Puri and the temple of Lingaraj in the capital city here. Other non-defence and non-religious installations where security has been increased include the Bhubaneswar Airport as well as Paradip port, one of the major seaports in east coast located in coastal Jagatsinghpur district.