Now, cops will get wings in Meghalaya as the state Government suggested using drones to manage traffic at busy spots of Shillong.
In a major move aimed at improving traffic management in the bustling city of Shillong, the Meghalaya Police will soon submit a proposal to procure drone technology to tackle traffic congestion.
Informing about this, , Director General of Police (DGP) of Meghalaya, Dr LR Bishnoi said a team of traffic police personnel are sent to secretariat for training and following which the procurement of drones will start.
“CM has held a meeting regarding this traffic congestion problem particularly in Shillong town and he has suggested the use of drones, so that we can monitor the congestion points,” DGP told reporters in Shillong.
While stating that the state police are yet to procure drones, Dr Bishnoi said, “Today I am sending my officers, a team of traffic officers. They will go to the secretariat where the drone is already functioning, they will understand how we can use that for the monitoring of the traffic congestion points.”
“Little bit training is required and once they are through after the training, we will start using it, first we will procure the drone as per our requirement for that proposal is under consideration, hopefully soon we will be able to procure that,” he added.
This will also help keeping an eye on traffic rule violators by tracing them and taking legal action against them.
Expressing concern over the shortage of manpower in traffic department, the Police chief said, “In Shillong almost if I remember correctly almost, in more than 56-57 our traffic points where personnel are deployed but with the existing strength we cannot cover each and every inch of the road and be physically present round the clock.”
While the Meghalaya police is looking for fresh recruitment in the traffic branch, the DGP said, “ Mainly our traffic personnel are working in two shifts, if we make three shift then we may require more traffic personnel and once the recruitment process is completed, hopefully, we will be able to give more traffic personals in the traffic branches.”
However, this technology is expected to closely monitor the traffic snarls and provide an aerial perspective of traffic congestion at major bottlenecks.