Visakhapatnam: Drone cameras to step up vigil on railway property

Visakhapatnam: With the security of the unattended railway property and vital installations turning crucial, the concept of security patrolling through drones has been introduced in Waltair Division of East Coast Railway.

In a step to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and adhere to the lockdown rules, Indian Railways have brought the movement of passenger train services to a screeching halt. However, goods trains continue to operate to transport essential supplies and provide an uninterrupted supply of the commodities all through the nation amid coronavirus outbreak. But with either minimal or no movement of the railway security personnel at this juncture, Waltair Division has begun the security patrolling using drones. This also aims at placing a check on the unauthorised movement of the people at the railway tracks.

Since it is practically not possible to guard the railway assets physically, drone cameras will be operating with the State's permission so that the movements are fully monitored. They will capture the images of the track from the maximum suitable heights, communication links of two-km approximately so that the image and video reach the operator with clarity to consider any course of action. Besides real-time monitoring, the data will be stored to create a video library for future references.

In case of any emergency, the message can be sent to the control room for immediate action and information can be passed to local police. The same project will soon be operational at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar and Puri based on the requirement.