Visitors gather inside a puja pandal, a temporary place of worship, on the eve of the Durga Puja festival in Siliguri, West Bengal yesterday. The five-day festival begins today.
IANS
Kolkata
Organisers of the Hindu festival of Durga Puja have turned to drones to manage crowds this year, with the unmanned aerial vehicles set to buzz around and relay visuals.
The Kumartuli Park Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee in north Kolkata is launching a drone from today, a day ahead of the festival. For the ‘pandal’ (marquee), the organisers have recreated scenes from earthquake-ravaged Nepal and depicted India’s timely help to that nation.
“The footfall is expected to be huge since people have started pandal-hopping and tomorrow is a holiday. We did a demo run of the drone today. We have got the necessary permission to run the drone,” Subir Chatterjee of the committee said.
Initially only one drone will be pressed into service from 2pm to 5pm.
“The drone will relay visuals of the crowd to the control room at the marquee and we will accordingly plan strategies,” he said, adding another drone may be used in the coming days.
Chatterjee said the use of drone is not just an aid in crowd management but will also serve as a display of innovation for the public.
Meanwhile, police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure a peaceful Durga Puja.
The police have introduced “Kolkata Police Smart Puja Guide 2015,” an Android-based mobile application providing details of various puja marquees in and around the city, the road and route maps to reach them.
The application also provides contact details, addresses and themes of different puja pandals.
“A large of number of security personnel including those in plain clothes and female officers will be deployed across the city. CCTV cameras have also been installed in strategic locations and traffic and crowd movement will be monitored round the clock,” said an officer.
