The number of passengers travelling by the Mumbai local trains is increasing with every passing day. However, the state government and the railways have not yet allowed the general public to travel by the local, as the administration has been deliberating over the spread of coronavirus after the crowd increases in the trains.
As per reports, if the local trains resume for the general public, congestion at the railway stations cannot be ruled out. With an increasing number of people, the risk of spreading COVID-19 also increases and officials will have to keep a check on the same, to avoid any such scenarios. Keeping the same in mind, the Central Railway (CR) administration is considering the use of drone cameras to control this crowd, and various experiments are being carried out to understand the implementation of the same and crowd control during local travel.
Currently, CR is considering the use of drone cameras for crowd control at Mumbai suburban railway stations, and this can be possible with the help of two drone cameras, which can be operated by the Railway Security Force (RSF) for surveillance which can also help in preventing theft in the yards. Moreover, the use of these two drone cameras could also be done on an experimental basis to understand the passenger rush at railway stations.
RSF, at present, uses the footage from CCTV cameras to monitor the crowd at the stations, but with this technology, the team is considering better management. Officials state that this can be achieved by bringing the drone down to a certain height where the movement of the crowd and passengers in the stations can be recorded with the help of the cameras. This could in turn help the teams disperse the crowd by deploying the staff immediately.
Officials are considering the use of drone primarily at crowded stations like CSMT, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Thane, and Kalyan-Dombivali; and if the experiment shows successful results, the department might considering increasing the number of drones in the due course.
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