Odisha cops to use drone cameras to catch traffic violators in Bhubaneswar

Odisha police will for the first time use drone cameras for checking and monitoring traffic violations in order to ease vehicular congestion in one of the busiest stretches in Bhubaneswar.

Bhubaneswar-Cuttack twin city police commissioner Sudhansu Sarangi said Monday police will use drone cameras to keep a tab on violators who resort to rash driving or those who drive out of their lanes. He said the police opted for drones because deploying the a huge number of traffic personnel was not easy.

“We are basically using technology to solve our own problems that has become a headache. We would use the drone cameras for next 2-3 months to observe the traffic and pin down violators,” said Sarangi, who took charge as the head of the police commissionerate last week.

“The drone cameras will operate on the stretch between the airport square and the state assembly. They would play a crucial role to ensure that people stick to their respective lanes.”

Though Odisha government has earlier used drones, this is perhaps for the first time it will use it for traffic management. Last year it used drones to map the boundaries of over 2.5 lakh slum households in the State in what was billed as the world’s largest slum-titling project. Drone-based surveys were carried before the slum dwellers could be handed land rights under Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017.

Bangalore is perhaps the only Indian city that has used drones for traffic management.