Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has accorded sanction to establish a mobile drone unit in the Greater Chennai police at a cost of Rs 3.60 crore for enhancing surveillance and to rescue people stranded in beaches and high rise buildings.
A Government Order (GO) in this regard was issued in line with the announcement made by Chief Minsiter M K Stalin on 13 September in the State Assembly during the demand for grants for police department.
The GO said the Chennai police has always been in the forefront in utilizing the latest technologies to tackle crime and ensure safety of the people.
Initiated by Chennai City Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal, it said three types of drone units would be established at vantage points in the city to aid and assist the field Police Officers in reducing the response time to distress calls to conduct surveillance on VIP routes, crime prone areas, enabling rescue of people stranded in beach areas, high rise buildings during fire scenario and other emergency situations.
Inititally drone units will be deployed at the Marina Beach front near Mahatma Gandhi statue, Elliots Bech and Pondy Bazaar.
Each mobile drone police unit with nine drones will be housed in a temporary structure fabricated using container cabins with ground floor to be used as control room and the upper deck for drone operation, the GO said.
The three types of drones are Quick Response Special paylod drone (six numbers), Long Range Surveillance Drone (two) and Life Guard Drone (one).
Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu was directed to associate with the faculty in the Madras Institute of Technology who have worked on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Department of Aeronautics for the technical specifications.