Election officials at seven remote booths along the Assam-Meghalaya border in Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency will be using very high frequency (VHF) wireless sets for communication as the booths concerned are in “shadow areas” without mobile phone connectivity.

Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu said these seven polling stations are under Palasbari Assembly constituency and close to the inter-state border with Meghalaya.

The poll officers at these booths will use the wireless sets to relay voting data every two hours to the returning officer.

The Election Commission identifies areas with no mobile phone network or other such communication facilities as shadow zones.

Pegu said they had provided four-wheel drive vehicles for polling teams of two remote polling stations located on a hilly terrain near Garbhanga reserve forest on the city’s outskirts as two-wheel drive cars cannot reach those places.

Pegu said they would provide token gifts to the first-time voters in some of the polling booths to encourage them to vote.

There are 1,195 polling stations in Kamrup (metro) district of which 60 will have all-women polling personnel and 12 will be model polling stations. Altogether 59 polling stations in the district have been identified as “critical”.

The polling stations which had recorded 90 per cent polling of which 75 per cent votes went to a single candidate during previous elections, are identified as critical polling stations.

Around 5,300 polling officials have been deployed and 10 per cent staff have been kept as reserve to deal with any contingency.

“The strong room for the district has been set up at Maniram Dewan Trade Centre at Betkuchi,” an official source said.

He added that all polling teams, after collecting the election materials, including the EVMs and VVPATs, from the Maniram Dewan Trade Centre had left for their respective polling stations in the afternoon.