Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police here has prepared a blueprint for bifurcating Bhubaneswar Urban Police District into two UPDs – east and west – to be headed by one DCP rank officer each.
The reason: Rising crime rate, law enforcement challenges, and increased VIP movement and vehicles causing traffic snarls in the city.
Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh has sent a proposal in this regard to DGP YB Khurania, sources said on Monday.
The proposal entails no change in the strength of police stations and ACP offices. Bhubaneswar east and west UPDs will have 14 and 15 police stations respectively. The police personnel would be evenly distributed between the two districts to make the work load more equitable.
Singh, however, has sought creation of 988 posts, including 555 for west UPD reserve office.
The city has witnessed a rise in incidents of crime since Bhubaneswar UPD started functioning in 2008 with the number shooting up to 13,411 in 2024 compared to 4,566 in 2008. While the population of Bhubaneswar UPD has increased from 12.66 lakh in 2008 to 27.64 lakh in 2024, there has been over 56% rise in the number of vehicles.
The CP further mentioned about rapid urbanisation of Bhubaneswar along with the establishment of a large number of educational and health-care institutions, commercial hubs and increased industrialisation.
He stressed that one DCP office is unable to cope up with the ever-increasing supervisory work and suggested for bifurcating the UPD into two zones for providing better services to the citizens of Bhubaneswar.
Notably, former Twin City Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty in 2019 had proposed the bifurcation of Bhubaneswar UPD into two zones, along with the addition of three new police stations for the same reasons.
