Drones to assist Hyderabad traffic police in controlling vehicles, footpath encroachments

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad city police department is gearing up to use state-of-the-art knowledge and Artificial Intelligence to strengthen security measures under its ambit.

As part of it, Commissioner of Police CV Anand has decided to use drones to keep an eye on traffic and law and order in the coming year. The police would also purchase drones as the previous usage of hired drones on an experimental basis evoked a good response and helped them monitor traffic and public gathering management.

10 drones from a state-government recognised start-up

Official sources said, that in the first phase, the city police would purchase 10 drones from a State government-recognised start-up as drones would be more helpful for the police in traffic management and managing law and order.

A separate wing would also be established by the police and it would be associated with the Command and Control Center (CCC), Basheerbagh.

The staff at CCC would monitor the footage from the drones round-the-clock and alert the staff on the ground accordingly. Apart from traffic management, the drone footage would be also shared with other departments. After the introduction of drones in a full-fledged manner, the existing CCTV camera network across the city would also be associated with better results.

On using drones to keep an eye on city traffic, the officials said that traffic flow in the city would not be the same throughout the day. For instance, the traffic would be high particularly in the mornings and evenings as several vehicle users hit the streets to reach their workplaces and homes. Due to this traffic snarls were being witnessed especially near the bottlenecks, including encroachments on footpaths and illegal parking of vehicles where commercial and educational institutions were located.

Operation Rope

To overcome the situation, currently, the traffic police personnel across the city are making use of patrolling vehicles to ease traffic congestion. Recently, the Hyderabad police initiated ‘Operation Rope’ to clear encroachments on the footpaths by deploying traffic police and home guards in large numbers. After introducing the drones to monitor the traffic flow in the city it would ease the work on the existing staff and help to initiate the ‘Operation Rope’ in a more efficient manner.

Drones in use for special occasions

The officials also said that over the years, the drones were being used by the police on special occasions such as festivals, processions, agitations and during the visit of VVIPs to the city from abroad and other parts of the country. After getting the desired results in traffic management, the police decided to purchase drones and make the best use of them in a full-fledged manner.

On the other hand, night-patrolling staff were also facing a tough time monitoring their jurisdictions when it came to unusual incidents like the consumption of drugs, activities of anti-social elements in vacant lands and hill locks, robbery and other issues. A comprehensive action plan is being drafted by higher officials to introduce drones in a full-fledged manner in the coming months, the officials said.