What is the Gujarat police’s GP-DRASTI drone program?

Quicker response time

GP-DRASTI is set to go online just a month after an incident of gang violence was reported in Ahmedabad’s Vastral, where miscreants attacked passersby and damaged vehicles. The incident followed reports of stabbings in Vadodara, sword duels in Surat, bootlegger activities in Ahmedabad and drive-by gang shootings in Rajkot.

#Gujarat #Drone #GujaratPolice #Protection

ડ્રોનનો ઉપયોગ કરી રિસ્પોન્સ ટાઈમ ઘટાડવા ગુજરાત પોલીસે શરૂ કર્યો ખાસ પ્રોજેક્ટ ‘GP – DRASTI’

રાજ્યની સુરક્ષા વ્યવસ્થાને વધુ મજબૂત બનાવવા આ પ્રોજેક્ટ મહત્વપૂર્ણ સાબિત થશે: DGP @VikasSahayIPS @GujaratPolice @InfoGujarat pic.twitter.com/eJ1h6MEiNg

— AIR News Gujarat (@airnews_abad) April 4, 2025

In a statement, DGP Sahay said, “The response time of the police and the quality of that response are very important when an incident occurs in any place in Gujarat. For this, the arrangement of PCR vans is currently available. But it takes time for them to reach the scene of the incident. To reduce this time and take immediate action, Gujarat Police have decided to use drones.”

An official associated with the program said, “When the control room gets a call, they will not only intimate the local police but also the drone base station on the same channel, ensuring both the air and ground teams are deployed simultaneously. In the pilot programme, the drone reached in less than half the time of the ground teams.”

View captured by a drone. (Express photo)

“We have a landmark system in the software wherein when an incident is reported, the drone is set to fly directly towards the closest landmark (target point) and from there, it can be manoeuvred to the specific location,” the officer said.

With real-time video footage streamed directly to the base station, officials would identify whether an incident is escalating and order additional deployment of ground forces.

In criminal ‘hotspots’

The program is meant primarily for 33 police station jurisdictions of the four cities that are hotspots for “body-related” crimes, including assault, aggravated assault, rioting, unlawful assembly, street violence, shows of weapons, mob lynchings, and so on. They were identified under the police’s SHASTRA (Sharir Sambandhi Tras Rokva Abhiyan) program launched in February 2025, with 12 police stations in Ahmedabad, nine in Surat, seven in Vadodara, and five in Rajkot.

The Additional Director General of Technical Services procured the drones, with 18 more from the firm Asteria Aerospace expected to be delivered shortly, and then seven more later on, totalling 33.

A two-person team will remotely pilot each drone, one as the drone’s controller and the other as someone familiar police station’s jurisdiction. Initially, 16 staffers (two from each station receiving the drone) will be trained in the first tranche at the Gujarat Police Academy in Karai, Gandhinagar.

Drone specifications

The quadcopter drones will be flown at an operational flight ceiling of 120 metres above ground level. An official said that while the drone can fly higher, it cannot be done without requesting permission from other departments controlling the airspace.

Officials said their flight time of 45 minutes is sufficient. Replacement drones from other police stations can be deployed turn by turn if a large region needs to be covered. The drone can be controlled over a distance of 4 km, but no police station’s jurisdiction is spread over such a large area. The drone base station will be centrally located to stay within this range.

The drone cameras can zoom up to 1 km and have been tested with good results at a visual range of 700 metres, with good video output. Night vision is integrated into the main camera, and no additional payload is required to switch between day and night modes.

Further, the controller can also give the drone a fixed target to follow, either for surveillance or to intercept using ground teams. The drone can also see through soft obstacles like trees and bushes, but if a target moves behind a solid structure, it needs to be reacquired by repositioning the drone.

Notably, the cameras are also good enough to capture high-definition details of faces. This aerial ID system will be handy, officials said, in the identification of people in crowds and cases where a large number of accused people are involved in alleged criminal activities.