Kolkata Municipal Corporation to use drones to check dengue

As part of its drive to fight dengue, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to use drones from next year to take "difficult images" of stagnant water on terraces of high-rises in the city.
As per the plan, the city civic body had conducted a pilot-run last week and flown a drone over the South City towers located in southern part of the city's Bikramgarh area.
Dengue has taken several lives in and around the metropolis this year.
"With the number of high-rises in the city growing it's becoming quite a difficult task for our workers to reach to the terraces of the high-rises and the large housing complexes and run a check on dengue. Taking a stock of the situation we have decided to use drones for the purpose," a senior official of KMC's vector-control department said today.

"We are planning to fly the drones over the buildings to take images of stagnant water and plan accordingly to counter dengue," the official added.
In fact, after the pilot-run, senior officials held a meeting with mayor-in-council Atin Ghosh on the images taken from the drone, he said.

At the meeting, discussions on using the technology in dengue-prevention was held and a consensus was reached that the using drones might be initiated from next March, he said.
Incidentally, Ghosh had also directed the KMC officials to prepare a report on the usage of drones in the controlling the dengue menace in the city's multi-storied buildings.

"The inclusion of drones in capturing images will surely help KMC in controlling the vector-borne disease in the coming times. We consider this as a great decision for dengue prevention will be placed before the council meeting after mayor Sovan Chatterjee gives his nod," a civic official said.
However, introduction of drones would require nod of the city mayor as well as the mayor-in-council.
The KMC is actually working on the number of drones it requires for the purpose, another official said.