BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Police plan to bring in anti-drone (UAV) device to mount surveillance on drones in the State. For the purpose, experts of a Germany-based company delivered a presentation on anti-drone devices at the DGP’s camp office here on Wednesday in the presence of DGP Dr RP Sharma and other senior police officers. The presentation was planned after the Civil Aviation Ministry announced country’s first National Drone Usage Policy in August.
The new policy is expected to open opportunities for several commercial sectors and trigger a commercial production of different sizes of drones like large, small, medium and micro drones. The Twin City police are bracing up for implementing the policy which will come into force from December this year. However, one major restriction will be drones cannot fly around and over the sensitive areas.
As per the National Drone Usage Policy, except nano drones and those owned by National Technical Research Organisation and Central intelligence agencies, the remaining ones would be registered and issued Unique Identification Number. The norms prevent drones from flying around certain restricted locations such as airports, near international borders, near coast lines, State Secretariat complexes, and others.
The German-based firm has developed a portable equipment which can track registered and unregistered UAVs within 2 km radius to 10 km radius.The German anti-drone equipment can zoom in into the contents of the UAVs through its camera which can be viewed at the control room where the device has been installed. Besides this, the equipment is also capable to track the operator of the UAV and send it back to the handler. The device’s operator can also land an UAV at a desired location for its further verification.
“Once the policy comes into force, police will be responsible for the security regarding usage of unregistered UAVs. We are examining the features of the equipment developed by the German firm and accordingly we will take a decision on procuring it,” Dr Sharma told The Express.