UP Police to acquire 84 specialised drones

Lucknow, April 27 The UP Police has signed a contract with a Pune-based robotics startup to deliver 84 specialised drones with day and night visual capability and thermal imaging features to detect hidden arms and ammunition.

The drones will also help the UP Police to control rioting and improve aerial surveillance.

The Pune company Sagar Defence Engineering bagged the contract through the Make in India route GEM portal at a cost of less than Rs 10 lakh per drone during the reverse auction to support natively developed drone technologies, where the actual cost of such drones was envisaged to be up to Rs 24 lakh.

Though the Uttar Pradesh government had acquired simple drones earlier too for surveillance purposes during the Kumbh Mela, this is the first time the state government has ordered specialised drones as these have two advanced cameras and one microphone for generating awareness, issuing warnings and making announcements for effective policing.

Sagar founder and MD Capt Nikunj Parashar said, "These drones that weigh around 6.5 kg can operate for an hour and for a distance of 5 km on a single charge. Drones of the same platform with different payloads were earlier acquired by the Indian Navy from us. The Navy uses these drones on high seas for keeping surveillance around its warships and for keeping an eye on enemy vessels, pirates, gun-runners and drug smugglers. "

Capt Nikunj said his company "will deliver all 84 drones to the UP Police by the last week of May".

He also said that the UP Special Task Force had recently acquired some drones from his company for anti-criminal operations.

"Our products have always proven to be pathbreaking for all the security needs of various security forces, including the Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, BSF and DRDO," the Sagar Defence MD said.

The company has also indigenously developed and deployed a one-of-a-kind technology that enables drones to perform autonomous launch and recovery from any moving platform, marine or land.

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