By Alisha Shah 
New Delhi: The Delhi government and the police will conduct trials of the newly installed air siren system in central Delhi’s ITO on Friday afternoon as a precautionary measure amidst rising tension between India and Pakistan. The sirens will be heard around a radius of 4 km, said a police officer.
The testing will begin at 3 pm and be carried out for a period of 15-20 minutes, a government order said. “Accordingly, it is requested that adequate publicity may be made through social and electronic media so that general public are advised to remain calm and not to panic during the said exercise,” the order signed by district magistrate (Central) G. Sudhakar reads.
Delhi police teams have been deployed to check the preparedness of the staff as well as equipment, an official said. The directorate of civilian defense will carry out the trials at the public works department (PWD) headquarters at ITO.
The city police stressed that Friday’s operation is only a trial and have asked people not to panic. For example, a mock drill was conducted for school students and locals on Wednesday as per centres’ orders to prepare people in case of any emergency.
The station house officer in Daryaganj also made public announcements on Friday morning saying: “Today, at 3 pm, there will be checking of air raid sirens at PWD HQ. The sirens will be heard at a radius of 4 km. Don’t panic since this is only checking. Later on, whenever we use this, it would be a warning sign. But not today”