Hyderabad: Basement parking spaces at most business establishments and shopping malls in the city do not have adequate surveillance and security measures.
No guards or vehicle checking mechanisms are in place at entry points. Miscreants with explosives can easily drive in without being stopped.
Decoy operations at malls by the police on Monday found that visitors are also allowed inside without being frisked at most establishments.
The police has issued notices to more malls and commercial buildings asking them to beef up security within a week.
“There must be security guards at the entry points of basement parking facilities and they should conduct thorough checking of vehicles before letting visitors in. They should have under-vehicle search mirrors and metal detectors. However, most establishments do not have any such facilities in place,” said West Zone DCP A. Venkateswara Rao.
According to the police, only two or three malls have installed standard security measures at parking and building entrances. One of them, Inorbit Mall in Hitec City, installed the standard security system after being pressured by Cyberabad police for long.
“We check all vehicles using under-vehicle search mirrors,” said an official of Inorbit Mall. After the police conducted a search in Aziz Plaza, a shopping complex located in Begum Bazaar on Tuesday, following a bomb hoax, officials found that the building had poor security.
“There were no surveillance cameras, no guards and other security measures in place,” said a police officer from Shah Inayath Gunj police station.
Businessmen at Aziz Plaza had ignored the order which was issued last year by West Zone police to install security measures.
Earlier, the Dilsukh-nagar twin blast suspects had revealed that Begum Bazaar was one of the places where they had conducted reccees.
Senior police officials said that they would continue to check malls and shopping complexes periodically to ensure that proper security is in place.
The cops are also thinking of allowing malls to have armed security guards in view of attacks by terrorists in various parts of the world.
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