CR to carry out surveillance at Mumbai railway stations with their 'eye in the sky'

Mumbai Division of Central Railway recently procured two Ninja UAVs, These UAVs will assist in providing better security and surveillance in Railway areas like station premises, Railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc.

A team of four staff of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mumbai has been trained for drone flying, surveillance and maintenance. Accordingly, these two drone cameras were used on an experimental basis within the limits of Kalyan station.

After a trial, it was understood that drone surveillance technology has emerged as an important and cost-effective tool for security surveillance over large areas with limited manpower. Drones were used to enforce lockdown and monitor the movement of migrants during the COVID-19 lockdown.

These drones are capable of real-time tracking, video streaming and can also be operated on an automatic fail-safe mode. A drone camera can cover a large area, which may require up 10 RPF personnel.

Drone will be helpful in various way:

• Surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities in railway premises. It may include gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc.
• Crowd monitoring during critical situations, during festive seasons etc.
• 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.
• Analysis of vulnerable sections for safe operations of trains
• Surveillance on disaster sites and coordinating with other agencies.
• Mapping of railway asset to assess the encroachments on railway property.
• The drones will act as the Central Railway's "eye in the sky" and will monitor the whole area.