To safe guard life and property across the country as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) embarks on a load shedding exercise, Wednesday, March 19, 2014, the Ghana Police Service says it has drawn up elaborate security plan to ward off miscreants from fomenting trouble within the communities.

Speaking to Joy News, Wednesday, the Greater Accra Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Police Service, DSP
Freeman Tetteh assured the public that there will be increased police visibility especially at  places that will experience power outages at a particular point in time.

"Our (Police) presence will be felt", he insisted, adding that various patrol teams will be active within the communities to ensure they are secured.

According to DSP Tetteh, the police will be monitoring the time table for the load shedding exercise and use it as a guide to provide security for people.

He further asked the public to be prompt in accessing the services of the police through its active crime fighter's numbers - 18555 for Vodafon and MTN only and 0302773906, an active main line number, any time, for help.

Additionally, the Greater Accra Police PRO called for the formation of neighbourhood watch committees in the various communities to will help in promptly accessing the police in time of any unfortunate incident.

The ECG has published a temporary timetable for the ongoing load shedding exercise. It spans 17th to 30th March. 

According to the schedule, the outages will last for 12 hours, followed by power stability for 48 hours.

Areas are coded and grouped under scheduled dates and time for load shedding. The timetable has also been regionalized with groupings so that areas in one group will go off at the same time. Only the northern regions including Brong Ahafo Region have not been included in the guide.

A public relations officer at the ECG, Dan Adjei Larbi said the exercise is for two weeks and expected to be revised if the problems with the power plants are solved by the engineers.