India’s Western Railways to use surveillance drones in a bid to boost security

Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Western Railways informed that in order to tighten security, Western Railways has been planning on using surveillance drones to keep a bird’s eye watch on the railway assets, disaster management, and crowd management.

As per the CPRO, Western Railways is planning to use a new method for the bird’s eye watch of certain locations. He added that the Western division of the Indian Railways will be using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in order to keep an eye on yards and tracks.

The Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) further said that for last-mile connectivity, the work of certification and permission for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is also underway.

Significance

The Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railways said that the use of surveillance drones will help the division in reducing the response time in case of any kind of emergency.

Mumbai: Western Railway to use drone cameras to monitor stations, yards & tracks

We're procuring 2 drone cameras & training our staff to operate them. These drones can fly upto an altitude of 200m & it'll give 2km coverage: Sumit Thakur, CPRO Western Railway pic.twitter.com/wKQF3wOFAc

— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2021

Western Railways to use surveillance drones: Key Highlights

• Sumit Thakur further said that the surveillance drones technology will be used for crowd management and disaster management.

• Western Railways authority will be procuring two drone cameras for now and will also be training the staff to operate them.

• The two drone cameras will be equipped with advanced technology and they can easily be flown at a height of 200 meters above the ground. As per Sumit Thakur, the drone cameras can cover a radius of 2 kilometers. It can be in flight for 25 minutes.

Technology used in surveillance drones

While talking about the technical aspect, the Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railways said that the drone cameras will have modern GPS-based technology and can be switched to autopilot mode. The surveillance drones will be able to return to their base station in case of any emergency.