Cops to avoid stampede with drone help
A drone will fly over Kotipalli ghat to relay information to control room.
Rajahmundry: Over three crores of devotees are expected to take a holy dip in the Godavari river and perform rituals during the Godavari Pushkaralu. The police is relying on aerial and electronic surveillance to avoid stampede at the bathing ghats and vehicular traffic jams on the national and state highways and to keep tabs on anti-social elements. As part of aerial surveillance, five to six unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones will be pressed into service.
Based on a tentative proposal, three drones will be deployed in Rajahmundry and one each at Kovvur and at Narsa-puram. They will fly at a height of about 500 metres and cover an area with a 2-km radius. The drones will be fixed with cameras that will take images and videos and transmit the data to the command and control room.
Senior police officials, who will closely watch the images and videos at the control room, will alert the police personnel deputed at several locations on the movement of the devotees at bathing ghats and at other public places.
In case they find any stampede like situation arising at a particular ghat they will rush the-re to ease the situation. Similar is the case with regard to regulating the movement of the vehicles coming from various places to Godavari districts on national and state highways and also on city roads. If the officials at the control room notice several vehicles in a row are proceeding tow-ards entry point of Rajahmundry, the police will alert the concerned authorities to divert the traffic to alternate routes and avoid traffic jam on the highways.
Movement of anti-social elements will also be checked with the images and videos being sent by the drones to take steps to nab them. An aerostat surveillance system will also be pressed into service wherein a moored balloon will be airborne firmly fixed to the ground. The camera fixed to it will send live images and videos to the control room.
In addition to aerial surveillance, electronic surveillance is also going to play a key role to help the police manage the crowds and vehicles and keep an eye on anti-social elements.
Over 500 CCTV cameras will be installed at bathing ghats, railway and bus stations and at other public places.
Senior police officials monitor the developments from the control room. Eluru range DIG P. Hari Kumar said, “We are availing high-end technology to avoid any untoward incidents dur-ing the fete. Accordingly, we are deploying drones and installing surveillance cameras. Traditional policing will also be there.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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