BENGALURU: To enhance passenger safety, the Railway Protection Force of the South Western Railway (SWR) Zone has purchased a drone which will be deployed to conduct aerial surveillance of railway tracks. It has become the second among 17 railway zones in India to launch this facility.
The drone, costing around `2 lakh, has been purchased by the RPF from a Nagpur-based firm and will be sent to Bengaluru this week to conduct surveillance. The West Central zone headquarters at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh was the first in the country to purchase them in January this year.
Director Inspector General-cum-Chief Security Commissioner of RPF, SWR Zone, D B Kasur told The New Indian Express that the new drone has already begun initial surveillance work in the yard and Railway tracks near the Hubballi railway station. “We plan to buy one drone each for Mysuru and Hubballi divisions in the coming months,” he said.
The drone with SWR can fly up to 5 km from the point of operation. The mini-unmanned aircraft has a 16 GB inbuilt memory and it can store up-to half-an-hour of a video.
“This initiative has been taken by the RPF for better security of Railway property and passengers,” he said. “It could prove particularly useful in case of search and rescue operations in the event of any mishap or if huge crowds need to be monitored, “ he added. The initial plan is to deploy the drone in the border between Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu.