Lucknow Police to get mobile drone vehicles

Lucknow: The new hi-tech Mobile Drone Vehicle (MDV) will soon join the Lucknow Police to make policing more effective.

The flying time of this drone will be 10-15 hours, some leap from the present 15 minutes.

The new MDV serves both as its base and carries the drone, allowing for remote monitoring. It is ready to be used as it can be installed within a few minutes. The drone has a 10-hour flight duration as opposed to the typical drone with a 15 to 20-minute flying limit.

Upendra Kumar Agrawal, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Law and Order, said: “We did a trial run and it was successful. We are in the final stage to launch it, where big events such as processions, cricket matches, and upcoming Lok Sabha elections can be monitored.”

The drone has been developed by a city-based Robotic company Roboz run by a robot expert Milind Raj and is being funded by Goenka Group under its corporate social responsibility programme.

“Continuous monitoring will be done through the drone installed in this vehicle. It will continue to get battery backup through a wire and a generator in the vehicle. Till now, only 10-15 minutes of monitoring has been possible through drones,” added the JCP.

“A 32-inch screen in the car will help the team sitting inside the vehicle monitor captured proceedings. Interestingly, the drone will be able to keep an eye from a height of about 70 feet. Till now, drones can take good pictures only from a maximum height of 20 feet,” he said adding that the drone will be significant to keep a watch on sensitive programmes.

Agarwal said that the drone system can be fed criminal data from police records and can be used to scan for criminals who may be present at such events.

“The device will be useful for managing traffic since, in the event of a jam, a parked drone in the vicinity may fly to identify the cause of the jam, eliminating the need for a traffic cop to investigate,” said the JCP.