Bikes are kept in Ahmedabad police headquarters. Bikes are kept in Ahmedabad police headquarters.

The two Harley Davidson 500 cc superbikes recently purchased by the Gujarat police to escort the convoys of the VVIPs and VIPs during the Vibrant Gujarat Investors’ Summit have been pulled out of the security after the policemen failed to manage them.

The ambitious plan of adding ‘luxury’ value to security at the two high-profile events — the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) and the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit — didn’t take off and now the bikes have been pulled out of both the events completely.

The decision was taken when on the second day of the PBD, the policemen entrusted with responsibility of riding the bikes ahead of the prime minister’s convoy couldn’t be able to ride the bikes during the trial. The policemen over sped the bikes and skid on the road an hour before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to arrive.

To save themselves from the embarrassment of a chaos, the state police pulled out the bikes from the PM’s convoy and road bandobast at the last minute. The senior police officers handling the road security and vehicle arrangements have now decided not to use the Davidson bikes in the convoy of security at PBD and VGGIS at all.

A senior IPS officer handling the security at Gandhinagar said, “The policemen were asked to ride the bikes as convoys to the PM and VVIPs’ security. However, the policemen started slipping from the bikes and couldn’t manage the speed as well. The policemen have so far used only the Indian-made bikes. Suddenly asking them to ride a foreign-made superbike without adequate practice has put them in an embarrassing position. During the security rehearsals, the policemen were busy in venue security only.”

As a result of lack of preparedness the two Harley Davidson bikes are now lying at the Ahmedabad Police headquarters. As per their old plan, the Davidson bikes were to be deployed at the front of the convoy as ‘pilots’ to be followed by the police cars and cars of the VIPs.

However, after the bikes were pulled off, now the police vans would be used as pilot vehicle for the convoys of the VVIPs and VIPs at the VGGIS starting Monday.

The two Harley Davidson bikes worth Rs five lakhs each have been procured by the Modernization Department of the State Police. These superbikes are being used abroad by the police forces for the security of VVIPs in their convoy.

The officers said that the Harley Davidson bikes have 500 cc V- twin engine and also heavier in size which the policemen from Gujarat couldn’t manage to ride. However, the 500 cc V-twin engines Davidson bikes introduced in 2014 are specially made for the Indian roads.

Earlier, the bikes were stationed in Gandhinagar SP’s office where the policemen had ridden them for a few days for practice. The policemen who were supposed to be trained to ride the bikes weren’t given training before the events. Now, they are kept in Ahmedabad police headquarters to be used in the convoys starting from Ahmedabad airport.

The sources added that after giving proper training to handle the use of these two Harley Davidson bikes, the State Police have planned to buy 15 more superbikes for use in security convoys.

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