The AP government is looking to the skies for solutions for better administration. According to reports, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has directed officials to prepare a roadmap for using drone technology for real-time governance inputs.

At a review meeting with officials of the Andhra Pradesh Fiber Grid project at his residence, Naidu pointed to the use of drones for crowd control, traffic management and the regulation of crime at the Krishna Pushkarams held recently. He told officials that drone use should be expanded to include tourism, agriculture, mines, forests, irrigation projects, law and order maintenance and municipal administration.

The CM added that a four-member committee would be set up to prepare a roadmap for drone use based on international examples, to formulate the necessary guidelines and to set up a single-window system for implementation of plans.

He also said that a state-level command centre would be set up in the state capital with regional centres in Vishakapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Anantapur and district-level centres to coordinate the situation at the ground level and provide for real-time decision making and efficient and responsive administration.

Speaking earlier, K Sambasiva Rao, MD of the AP Fiber Grid observed that drones were in use in Japan for the last 25 years in agriculture, and were also being extensively used in the USA, Australia and Switzerland. He added that drone use could also check illegal mining, help monitor highway traffic and serve administrative needs in a number of other sectors.