Warangal: Drones in Covid-19 battle

Warangal: As the nation moves into the last week of 21-day lockdown amid fears that it may be extended further, the authorities have also ramped up their operations to contain the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) by deploying drones, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The authorities in the erstwhile Warangal district are not new to using drones. In 2017, the then Jayashankar-Bhupalpally District Superintendent of Police R Bhaskaran introduced drone surveillance to keep a tab on mischief mongers and also banned CPI-Maoists. Later, the police used drone camera surveillance in the biennial Sammakka-Saralamma jatara to deal with the crowd management.

A few days ago, the Mulugu police deployed drone surveillance to track every nook and corner of Eturnagaram town for the strict implementation of lockdown. They have been tracking the violators with the help of drone cameras and rushing the patrolling vehicles to the spots to avoid movement of people. A couple of days ago, Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao inaugurated drone-spraying of sodium hypochlorite at Raiparthy in Warangal Rural district. Against the backdrop that the district administration declaring 15 localities in Warangal city as 'no movement zones', the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) deployed drones with the assistance of Hyderabad-based Binford Robotics to disinfect the contaminated areas to prevent the spread of the virus.

Speaking to The Hans India, Mayor Gunda Prakash Rao said: "We have taken up the spraying of disinfectant in the streets from where a sizable number of people with coronavirus positive hail from. These drones are capable of spraying disinfectant 50 per cent more than that of traditional way."

In times of touch-me-not situation, the drone-spraying is of immense help in avoiding health workers getting infected, the Mayor said. It's learnt that a drone can carry up to 10 litres of disinfectant.