Drones deployed to monitor Mum-Pune expressway, 15 fined on day one

On Saturday, drones were used for the first time on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway to monitor vehicular traffic and 15 drivers were fined during the exercise for cutting lanes.

“After receiving directives from the Maharashtra government, we conducted the demonstration for the first time and used two drones in ghat section (between Lonavala exit and Khalapur toll plaza) to monitor vehicular traffic on both the sides,” said Amol Tambe, Superintendent of Police (Highways), Pune Region.

Fifteen truck drivers were fined for cutting lanes after aerial pictures of lane-cutting by these drivers were captured by the drones.

“They were given challan either at the Urse toll plaza or Khalapur toll plaza,” Tambe said. The SP said the demonstration was carried out between 12 noon and 4 PM and the same will be continued on Sunday.

Recently, Maharashtra Minister of State for Home (Urban) Deepak Kesarkar had announced that drones would initially be put in place on a pilot basis on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The Shiv Sena Minister had termed the Mumbai-Pune expressway as a ‘death trap’ with a large number of road casualties reported lately.

“Incidents of road accidents have increased due to the indiscipline of vehicles and their rash driving. We do not have control over rash driving as the length of the expressway is long and there is insufficient police staff for surveillance,” Kesarkar had said.

He had also said while there is a need to control vehicular traffic, using a CCTV cameras for the purpose has its own limitations and so the idea of using drones was discussed.