It also plans to include Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas within the network of the megacity policing project. The 10-year modernisation blue print will aim at creating a uniform manpower base at all police stations.

Police chief Gautam Mohan Chakraborti said, “We are planning to have 361 police personnel in a model police station to be manned by five officers-in-charge. This model will be followed in all mega cities like Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi and Bangalore. The jurisdictional area to be covered by such a police station will be 1.5 to 2 sq. km and serve a population of about 200,000.” Such police stations will have waiting rooms for visitors, CCTVs in lock-up and interrogation rooms.

Each station will also have a recreation area for policemen with gym facilities. A separate Kolkata police headquarter building will be built on 300 and 306 B B Ganguly Street, near its existing headquarters in Lalbazar.

“The non-operational part of the Kolkata police, like licensing, etc, will be shifted to the new premises. Apart from upgrading the existing control room, a separate one will be developed in the new building. The divisional control rooms will also be upgraded,” added Chakraborti. The new police stations will have more vehicles, including patrol vans. “At present, we have roughly one patrol van for two police stations, whereas in Mumbai, each police station has three to four. Moreover, we are planning to provide more two-wheelers to police stations, as these come handy in the lanes and by lanes,” the commissioner said.

While planning for the new structure is complete, it is the funding part that is creating bottlenecks, said senior police officers.

Chakraborti acknowledged that last year’s (2006-07) allocation of funds for modernisation of the police force is yet to reach them. “Last year, we had asked for modern equipment and vehicles worth Rs 15 crore. Out of it, 75 per cent was to be borne by the Centre and 25 per cent by the state government. But due to procedural delays, the funds are yet to arrive,” he added.

Sources in Lalbazar, however, said the modernisation plan for 2006-07 included a large number of vehicles and the kinds of equipment that the Union Home ministry was not willing to sanction. Later, it accepted the proposals sent from Kolkata, but lack of communication between the Union Home ministry and the state government reportedly resulted in the delay.