As Chennai and its three adjacent districts have been brought under the ambit of the enhanced lockdown for 12 days from June 19 to June 30, the important places and roads of the city wore a deserted look on Friday -the first day of the intense lockdown spell, as most of the residents refrained from hopping out the residences and the city's police department has installed barricades and closed some of the busiest roads of the city.

The current tenure of the enhanced lockdown is the second such episode for the city as earlier in May, it was roofed under the tight restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, the sequel of the exponential rise had let the government impose the lockdown now in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, and Chengalpattu districts with the hope that the current spell would show the sign of flattening the curve of COVID-19 affected cases.

The residents of the city and the areas in the three districts that fall under the Greater Chennai police limits woke up on Friday along with the extraordinary measure, which will be in place for 12 days. The Chennai city police department has gripped up the mechanisms to ensure that the enhanced lockdown pay-off its role of containing the spread of the virus in the city, which has become a huge challenge for the government.

According to the reports, the city police has blocked Anna Salai and Kamarajar Salai during the tenure of the lockdown to constrain the unnecessary travels and the police had also deployed surveillance in the city's outer ring to monitor the to and fro movement of the city and they have seized vehicles of people who violate the restrictions and traveling with fake e-passes. 

Also read: 12 days of lockdown and 8 measures of TN Govt: How it aims to contain the spread?

While police had deployed mechanisms to control the movement of people, the Chennai city corporation has paced up its mechanisms to conduct fever camps and surveillance in the city and the corporation would be deploying health officers to every ward which has more cases to conduct the camps and civic body aims to conduct nearly 680 camps every day in the city. 

The establishments offering non-essential services have been ordered to shut down in the city and the government has permitted the movements and functioning of the essential services with tight restrictions. The essential services like grocery shops, vegetable shops, fuel stations can open from 6 am to 2 pm while the extremely essential services like hospitals, pharmacies, and ambulance services can continue to operate. 

The eateries and hotels are barred to offer dine-in services and they are permitted to offer the delivery services from 6 am to 8 pm while the Amma Canteens under the Greater Chennai police limits would be offering food at free-of-cost. While addressing the reporters on Thursday, Chennai police commissioner AK Viswanathan said that the department has installed 288 checkpoints in greater Chennai police limits. 

He further stated that strict action would be taken against people who found to have violated the restrictions and not wearing the masks and people would be booked legally if they have traveled using fake e-passes. As of Thursday, Tamil Nadu has reported 23,065 active cases of which 19,872 cases belong to Chennai and its three adjacent districts as curbing the spread in these hotspots would contribute the state to flatten the curve of COVID-19 affected cases.

Also read: 12 days lockdown in Chennai: TN Govt eyes for a strict lockdown - What to note?