MARGAO: Superintendent of Police South Arvind Gawas has issued an advisory to all hotels and guest houses in South Goa to beef up security following the bomb attacks in Sri Lanka recently where hotels was targeted and also as on November 26, 2008 hotels in Mumbai were targeted by terrorists.
Acknowledging that hotels are targeted because of the presence of foreign tourists who draw attention of national and international media, the advisory while assuring that no major inconvenience will be caused pointed out that the security pay offs will outweigh the minor inconvenience.
Hotels and guest houses have been asked to reduce the access points to one or two and the same should be regulated with Door Frame Metal Detectors and monitored by CCTV cameras. Besides, all vehicles are to be stopped outside the premises and thoroughly checked for explosives.
While hydraulically operated road barriers or retractable bollards are recommended, the establishments are also asked to trip all shrubs and vines and increase security personnel to increase patrolling and also advised to erect watch towers specially towards the beach side.
Towards materials access control, the establishments are advised to have baggage scanners to check all baggage besides checking the hand held bags individually. All supplies to the establishments are also advised to be scanned besides engaging only established and registered suppliers.
Advising them not to entertain walk in guests, the hotels have been asked to obtain photo copy of identity proof for record and have a CCTV camera at the reception to record the guest face properly.
Towards controlling internal access, they have been asked to programme the lift so that it can be operated by the room key which will stop the lift on the floor the room is situated and thus avoid guest going anywhere in the lift.
They have been advised to get Snifex which is a hand held device that points the direction where the explosive is kept and also asked to have trusted employees handle.
Besides asking the establishments to have a plan of action in case of emergency the advisory suggests that the staff should be trained through mock drills and advised them to liaison with the local administration.
