Mumbai Division of Central Railway in Indian Railways has recently procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in Railway areas like station premises, Railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc. Drone surveillance technology has emerged as an important and cost-effective tool for security surveillance over large areas with limited manpower.
A team of four staff of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mumbai has been trained for drone flying, surveillance and maintenance. These drones are capable of real-time tracking, video streaming and may be operated on automatic fail-safe mode.
Railway Protection Force (RPF) has planned extensive use of drones for the purpose of railway security. Nine drones have been procured by RPF so far at a cost of Rs. 31.87 Lakhs at South Eastern Railway, Central Railway, Modern Coaching Factory, Raebareli and South Western Railway.
It is further proposed to procure 17 more drones in future at a cost of Rs. 97.52 Lakhs. Nineteen 19 RPF personnel have so far been trained in operation and maintenance of drones out of which 4 have received licenses for flying drones. Six more RPF personnel are being trained.
The purpose of the drone deployment is to provide a force multiplier and aid to the effectiveness of the security personnel deployed. It can help in inspection of Railway assets and safety of yards, workshops, car sheds etc. it can be used to launch surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities like gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc in railway premises. It may be deployed for data collection analysis of such data collected may prove to be extremely useful in vulnerable sections for safe operations of trains.
The drone may be pressed in service at disaster sites for helping in rescue, recovery and restoration and coordinating of efforts of various agencies. It is very useful while undertaking mapping of railway asset to assess the encroachments on railway property. During large scale crowd management efforts, it may give vital inputs like crowd magnitude, probable time of arrival and dispersal based on which crowd regulation efforts may be planned and executed. Drones were used to enforce lockdown and monitor the movement of migrants during the COVID-19 lockdown.
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