Smart City procures five drones to watchdog happenings in city

Aurangabad, Sept 29:

The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) has purchased five drones, under Smart City Mission, having the capacity to take photographs from a distance of 2 km and a height of 200 metres. Earlier, the ASCDCL installed 700 CCTV cameras on all main roads, important squares and circles in the city. Meanwhile, the five drones are being looked upon as a ‘third eye' to keep a watch on the suspicious happenings and movements in the city.

The ASCDCL has purchased the drones by spending Rs 35 lakh under the i-SCOPE project. Three drones will be given to the police department and one each will be used by AMC and ASCDCL.

The main feature is that the range of each drone is 2 km and could take clear photos from a height of 200-meters. Besides an area at a distance of 800 metres away could also be watched through zooming. Presently, the AMC and police personnel are undergoing training on the operation of drones.

It is learnt that the police will opt for drone surveillance during the festivals, fairs, Ganeshotsav celebration, Jayantis of great leaders, agitations, riots-like situations etc periods. On other hand, the AMC will use the drone to conduct surveys of roads and take photographs of different ongoing

projects and other works said the ASCDCL sources.

Safe City project

The AMC is implementing the i-SCOPE project by spending Rs 28 crore. There will be an addition of

hi-tech 152 cameras which will be able to read faces, and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). If any vehicle rider violates traffic rules then the fine challan will be served to him directly online. The addition of these new drones will work wonders. Earlier, the ASCDCL had implemented Master System Integrator (MSI) project under the Smart City Mission. It includes the installation of 700 high-resolution CCTV cameras under the Safe City project. This helped to bring nearly the whole city under CCTV surveillance. The police stations in the jurisdiction of the police commissionerate are also linked to the project. This helps the cops to keep an eye on the suspicious movements, and happenings and keep an eye on the criminals in the city. Moreover, there are two Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) developed under the mission. One is at the police commissionerate and another one is at the Smart City Office.