Close watch: Vallam toll plaza on the Chittoor – Cuddalore Highway is among the two additional border checkposts set up in Vellore district.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, two additional police border checkposts have been set up on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH 44) and Chittoor-Cuddalore Highway (SH 9) within Vellore district limits as part of the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the election.
Election officials said that at present, border checkposts are located at Christianpet, Mutharasikuppam, Pathirappally, Sainagunta, and Paratharami in the district. Most of these checkposts are located on State borders, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (Christianpet checkpost). “As polling day nears, more surveillance is required to prevent the flow of unaccounted cash and items for distribution to voters. So, additional checkposts have been created,” said an official.
The checkpost, which has been created in Pallikonda toll plaza on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway, connects Vellore with Tirupattur district, while another checkpost in Vallam toll plaza on the Chittoor-Cuddalore Highway connects Vellore with Tiruvannamalai.
The new border checkpost at Pallikonda toll plaza holds significance because the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency includes areas like Vaniyambadi and Ambur towns that are located on the highway and come under Tirupattur district.
The checkposts also have two high-powered Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. The ANPR cameras not only capture images of the vehicles and number plates, but would also provide live feed to the control room that has been set up at the Collectorate, SP office and the Department of Mines, which handles sand mining on Palar river. Each ANPR camera has a storage capacity of 15 days.