Drones to detect mosquito larvae on roofs of high-rises

Kolkata: The state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department is mulling to use drones for detecting mosquito larvae particularly at roofs of high-rise buildings in the urban local bodies. A preliminary demonstration about the effectiveness of using the technology was undertaken at Ward 82 in South Kolkata on Friday afternoon. State Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim and the department's Principal Secretary Subrata Gupta was present at the time of the exercise.

The drone was used to capture footages of roofs of some high-rises to find out whether any garbage or water accumulation is there. "We were satisfied with the footage captured by the drone and suggested certain improvement in the software so that it can serve our purpose. The private company that has developed the technology made a note of the same and will accordingly work for the same," a senior official of the Municipal Affairs department said. It may be mentioned that the state government has a database of all the high-rise buildings in the city and its urban areas in the state in terms of their holding numbers. "Our plan is to capture the footage and then connect it with our Geographic Information System (GIS) which will track the problematic building as per its holding number. As soon as we locate the building, we will slap a notice to it for taking up cleanliness with immediacy. We have made it clear to the agency that their technology should meet our requirements," the official added.