To track drones, cops to install over 2,000 CCTV cameras along Pakistan border

A senior Punjab Police official informed that these cameras will be installed at the second line of defence along the border, that is, a few kilometres from the border.

They would come up in border areas, including police districts, falling under the Border Range and Ferozepur Range. These include Fazilka, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar Rural, Batala and Gurdaspur, senior police officials informed.

A total of 2,367 CCTV cameras will be installed along the India-Pakistan border in the five districts including 1,882 Bullet Cameras, 333 ANPR cameras and 152 PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras.

The maximum number of locations where the CCTV cameras will be installed is in Ferozepur (130) followed by Tarn Taran (123) and Amritsar (119). The face recognition software to be used with the CCTV cameras will also be able to restore face image from face privacy masking.

“The proposed CCTV surveillance system will involve setting up of Internet Protocol (IP)-based outdoor surveillance cameras across various locations in border areas. The video surveillance data from various cameras deployed will be stored at the locations defined by the police headquarters at appropriate levels of hierarchy and monitored at police stations and at district headquarters. The system will be designed to work in 24×7 environment with the camera feeds being fed to monitoring centres,” a senior officer, who did not want to be named, disclosed.

The proposed system houses software and analytic applications to facilitate deployment of intelligent analytics on the selected cameras and to raise the alarm in case of any unwarranted activity. Analytics software will bring significant benefit to review the incidences and look for any suspicious activity in both live video feeds and recorded footages.

Apart from ANPR analytics, the software will also be able to detect vehicle colour, identify unattended object, do vehicle tracking, identify overcrowding and recognise face.

These efforts of Punjab Police to use technology to curb smuggling activities through drones will be in addition to the physical checkpoints which are being set up at second line of defence along with personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF). Senior officials say the combined effort will make it difficult for drug and arms couriers, who collect the packages dropped by drones to operate in the border areas.

With the deployment of counter-drone technology in many parts of Punjab along the border, the success rate of bringing down the drones has gone up considerably. More than 100 drones operating out of Pakistan were reportedly brought down by BSF in 2023. However, senior officials say that the number of drones brought down was just a drop in the ocean.

A sum of Rs 20 crore was sanctioned by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in May 2023 for utilising it to set up CCTV cameras in border areas of Punjab in the current financial year. This was in addition to a reward of Rs 1 lakh announced for border residents for tipping security agencies off regarding presence of drones.