One can’t miss a bright red building standing on Velacheri Main Road. Yes, the J7 police station has had facelift. The building now stands in the place where a small single-storey facility once stood.
The policemen here are happy that the building now has all the required facilities and, most importantly, they will not have to face any more inconveniences during rains.
Flooding was one of the reasons why the old building was demolished to make way for the new one. When the height of the Main Road increased, rain water easily made way into the building. According to the policemen here, during the 2015 floods, the water was at hip-level.
Recently, the Chief Minister through a video conference from the Secretariat inaugurated the double-storied building. It has a parking facility on the ground floor with an office for physically challenged persons and senior citizens who visit the place to file their complaints.
The first floor accommodates Law and Order department and the second floor is alloted for Crime. Constructed at a cost of Rs 95 lakh, the building also has a CCTV control room. Many surveillance cameras have been fixed inside and a few have been installed on the road also.
Police officials here say that even though they faced a lot of difficulties due to the rains in the earlier building, that did not stop them from working. A police official recalls, “During the floods, we made a make-shift office at the cycle and two-wheeler shed as our building was filled with water; no one was able to enter it at the time, but now we don’t have to face similar issues.”