Maharashtra deploys drones, uses CDR, boosts patrolling to contain Covid-19

MUMBAI: When the Maharashtra police received the first set of call detail records (CDRs) to trace those in Nizamuddin, 60% numbers were from the majority community.

While this information was dubbed ‘strange’, the police quickly embarked on ‘dump data analysis’, where CDR is used to trace and question people.

“While this method is mostly used during a breakdown in law and order to track down rioters and terrorists, it has come handy in this case also as zeroing down people becomes easier. While it’s point in time, but also of passersby.


This list is then scruinitised,” explained a Maharashtra police official who is part of the crack team. “In this case, we located those who attended the congregation, those who visited Nizamuddin on a holiday and even those who took the train with Tablighis...,” added the official. Maharashtra state health minister Rajesh Tope said 1,300 of the 1,400 people suspected to have visited Nizamuddin have been traced.

Maharashtra, which has the highest numbers of COVID 19 cases, has formed a cluster containment plan to deal with the contagion. The state is using data analytics, drones and the traditional patrolling methods to deal with containment in crowded places. “In every district two to three drones are pressed that are used to monitor movements of streets.

A drone can cover a kilometre area once pressed. So it will give an aerial view of Marine Drive, show the arterial roads then move into its lanes and bylanes and then into the building that requires to be sealed, making tracking of movement of people simpler. And if we spot anybody roaming in these areas, a team is immediately pressed to take action,” said a senior police officer.

In Mumbai, which has reported a few cases of cluster containment, 474 teams across 241 containment zones have been set up. Around 900,000 people have been screened in the city.