THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the police planning to purchase Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for aerial surveillance, especially at crowded placed as well as for jungle operations, the National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode, has even offered to supply UAVs developed by the students.
The police plan to use UAVs, commonly known as drones, for anti-Naxal drives in jungles. They could also be used for mass gatherings like public meetings or festivals and even during Sabarimala pilgrimage season. Already, two private firms have conducted demonstration of drones.
The NIT students have developed a drone and it was demonstrated during a recent national conference on community policing here.
NIT professor P.S. Sathidevi, who presented the video demonstration, had offered to supply drones to the state police at affordable rates. “We are in the process of identifying the drones to be purchased. The cost of the drones ranges from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore, depending on the quality,” said ADGP (Modernisation) Loknath Behera.
Drones fitted with surveillance camera are at present used mainly by security agencies carrying out operations in jungles. Key factors like duration of continuous flying and quality of the video images will depend on the cost.
At present no agency in Kerala is using drone for security purposes. However, some private event managers use drones for recording purposes.
