The Mumbai Traffic Police has sent a proposal to the state home department to procure 45 hi-end drones for traffic monitoring. The police sources said that these drones would have clear zoom in function, spotlights and public address systems. Apart from monitoring traffic, the police will use these drones to book traffic offenders and keep tabs on secluded places as well.
Speaking to FPJ, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Yashasvi Yadav confirmed that a proposal has been recently sent to the home department to procure 45 hi-end drones for the traffic department.
"We will be starting drone policing. The drones which we are wanting to get would have spotlights, hi-end camera and public address systems. Once the government commission drones for us, we will issue tenders for the same. We intend to buy drones and not take them on rental basis," said a traffic police officer.
The officer explained that essentially these drones will monitor traffic violations such as triple seat riding, helmetless riding, motorists talking on mobile phones etc. "The drones would be able to capture number plates of the vehicles and then we would be able to issue challans to the offenders. Drones would also give us live feed on breakdown of any vehicle resulting in traffic jams," the officer said.
The officer refused to give details about the cost of each drone but said the drones which the traffic department wants in their kitty would be costly with several functions.
"We want drones which would have one hour flight time, pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, spotlights and public address systems. The live feeds of these cameras will be monitored from the traffic police headquarters in Worli," said the officer.
"We do have CCTV cameras installed at several places across the city, but drones will give us reach to those places which aren't covered by the CCTVs. These drones will be used across the city once we get them," the officer said.
