South Eastern Railway (SER) has deployed drone-mounted cameras to protect property under its jurisdiction.

Drones used by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) would help monitor railway yards, signalling infrastructure, wagon stocks, goods shades, relay rooms and railway tracks in key sections under four SER divisions, including Ranchi and Chakradharpur.

"The drones will capture images of tracks from a suitable height so that the image and videos are clear enough to take necessary action. Besides, real-time monitoring, operators will be storing the data to create a video library for future reference, " said an RPF officer at Tatanagar.

Drone cameras will keep vigil 24/7. Officials at Garden Reach, the Calcutta-based headquarters of South Eastern Railway, said patrolling using drones had already started since it was not possible to guard assets spread over four railway divisions.

"Since it is not practically possible to physically guard the huge assets and open railway tracks, surveillance through drone cameras has been initiated amidst the lockdown," said Sanjay Ghosh, chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway.

The RPF of South Eastern Railway has played a significant role in providing security to railway passengers as well as in guarding railway property and important installations.

In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, movement of passenger trains has been suspended. But, the movement of scheduled parcel trains for transportation of essential commodities is still on.

According to Ghosh, RPF deployed drones to optimise security personnel’s effectiveness and proactivity. With the help of drone cameras, images of railway areas are being captured to give the clear view of the area within a radius of 2km.

Sniffer dogs have also been deployed to detect explosives, theft and criminal activities in the prevailing Covid situation, he added.