Durga puja organisers to use drone for crowd management

Durga Puja organisers 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 Sunday, a day ahead of the festival starting October 19. For the pandal, the organisers have recreated scenes from earthquake-ravaged Nepal and depicted India's timely help to the nation.

"The footfall is expected to be huge since people have started pandal-hopping and Sunday is a holiday. We did a demo run of the drone on Saturday. We have got the necessary permission to run the drone," Subir Chatterjee of the committee told IANS.

Initially only one drone will be pressed into service from 2 p.m to 5 p.m.

"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 put in use 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.