In a bid to tighten security, Western Railways is planning to use surveillance drones to keep a bird’s eye watch on railway assets, disaster management, and crowd management, said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer (CPRO), Western Railways.

“Western Railway is planning to use a new method for the bird’s eye watch of certain locations. For that, we are using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to keep an eye on yards and tracks,” said the CPRO.

Mr Thakur said the use of drones will help us in reducing the response time in case of any emergency.

“We will use the technology for crowd management and disaster management. We are procuring two drone cameras for now and we are training our staff to operate them,” he said.

They can cover a radius of 2 kilometres. The drone camera can be in flight for 25 minutes. The cameras also have modern GPS based technology and can be switched to autopilot mode. They can return to their base station in case of any emergency,” he said.

CommentsFor last-mile connectivity, Mr Thakur said the work of certification and permission for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is underway. “Soon the cameras will be in our service,” he added.