Indian Railways to carry out surveillance of Mumbai station with ’an eye in the sky’

Indian Railways' Central Railway zone is aiming at better and real-time surveillance of the areas coming under its jurisdiction with the help of drones.

Central Railway's Mumbai Division has recently procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in railway areas like station premises, railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc.

"A team of four staff from Modernisation Cell of the RPF has been trained and obtained licence for flying these drones," said Shivaji Sutar, chief spokesperson of Central Railway.

"They can also do real time tracking, video streaming and (operate in) automatic failsafe mode," Sutar said.

The drone has an operational range of 2 km and fly upto 25 minutes. Its take-off weight is upto 2 kg and can capture HD images at 1280x720 pixels during daylight.

Drone surveillance technology has emerged as an important and cost-effective tool for security surveillance over large areas with limited manpower.

The drones will be helpful in:

• Inspection of railway assets and ensuring safety of yards, workshops, car sheds etc.

• Surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities in railway premises. It may include gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc.

• 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.

• Crowd monitoring during critical situations, during festive seasons etc.

The drones will act as the Central Railway's "eye in the sky" and will monitor the whole area.

They are also useful in the analysis of vulnerable sections for safe operations of trains, surveillance on disaster sites and coordinating with other agencies, besides napping of railway assets to assess encroachments.

Drone beats are designed across the division based on railway assets, sensitivity of area, activity of criminals etc. Any suspicious activity if noticed is intimated to the nearest RPF post of division to apprehend the criminal