Army, NSG survey assembly building

CHENNAI: Not wanting to be caught on the wrong foot in the event of a 26/11-type attack in Chennai, the Army headquarters in the city has discreetly conducted a reconnaissance of the newly-built Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly building in the Omandurar government estate on Anna Salai, government sources said.
Last Wednesday, Army paratroopers and commandoes of the National Security Guard (NSG) fanned out through the vast building to familiarise themselves with its floor plan.The men usually wear civilian clothes during such operations in order to avoid public attention. The NSG personnel were from among those stationed outside the city at Vandalur. Post 26/11, NSG combat units are being positioned at Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore to provide a quicker response to counter terror attacks.
The familiarisation exercise in Chennai will give the Army the advantage of knowing the topography of the seven-storey assembly building well enough to launch a swift rescue in case of a 26/11-like situation, in which terrorists hole themselves up in a building and take hostages. In Mumbai, experts believed the death toll could have been less and the terrorists neutralized much earlier if the commandoes who stormed the hotels had known their way around it sooner.
Not wanting to be caught unawares in the event of hotels being stormed by armed terrorists, like in the case of the Taj Mahal and Trident hotels in Mumbai, the Army and the NSG in Chennai have done its homework in this area too. In the past six months, they have silently recceed at least three top hotels in the city Taj Coromandel in Nungambakkam, Chola Sheraton on R.K. Salai and Trident on GST Road near the airport. It is possible that more hotels were recceed but their names could not be confirmed. The Chennai airport too has been repeatedly surveyed by the NSG, but that's part of the mandatory drill for its anti-hijacking unit, which must know the airport inside out.
Surveillance of prominent spots in metros is increasingly gaining priority for security and counter-terror agencies. In the last two years, closed circuit TVs have been installed places in both public and private domain, including government buildings and installations, malls, multiplexes, hotels, and most recently the beachfronts in Chennai --- Marina and Elliots.