# ECoR leads Indian Railways in drone surveillance, plans 11 more by March

2026-10-12T04:11:22+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk

Corroboration: 2 independent outlets

East Coast Railway (ECoR) leads Indian Railways in drone-based surveillance, with 11 drones deployed across its Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Rayagada divisions. The fleet is set to double to 22 by March 2027. The system, named ‘DROAWK EYE’, supports the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in monitoring vulnerable locations, detecting suspicious activities and preventing offences. ECoR RPF conducted 3,033 drone sorties between 1 January and 15 September 2026, of which 1,265 RED-coded sorties focused on critical security activities such as sabotage prevention, cable theft detection and fire safety. The drones are equipped with night vision and thermal cameras, and are operated by 160 DGCA-certified pilots. The network covers 284 stations, 2,708 route kilometres and 6,072 track kilometres across 31 RPF posts. The drones are particularly useful in forests, hilly terrain, tunnels, bridges and isolated stretches, including sections of the Koraput-Rayagada-Kirandul line. Orissa POST reports that drone surveillance also played a role in crowd management during Puri’s Rath Yatra 2026 and supports the Meri Saheli women’s safety initiative.

## Indian Opinion Analysis

Both Odisha Bytes and Orissa POST report the same facts on ECoR’s drone surveillance system: 11 drones deployed across three divisions, 160 DGCA-certified pilots, 3,033 sorties between January and 15 September 2026, and a plan to double the fleet to 22 by March 2027. The coverage is uniform wire-style reporting with no discernible slant. Orissa POST adds details absent from Odisha Bytes: the drones’ role in crowd management during Puri’s Rath Yatra 2026, their support for the Meri Saheli women’s safety initiative, and the claim that a single drone team covers 8 to 10 km. Odisha Bytes leads with the headline assertion of ECoR leading Indian Railways, while Orissa POST frames the expansion as a response to security gaps. The balanced reading is that ECoR has steadily expanded aerial surveillance across its 2,708 route km, with measurable output metrics and a published expansion target for FY2027.

## Coverage

Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
- odishabytes.com (neutral report) <https://odishabytes.com/ecor-leads-indian-railways-in-drone-based-surveillance-where-are-they-deployed-in-odisha/>
  Straight factual list of drone deployment and sortie data
- orissapost.com (neutral report) <https://www.orissapost.com/drones-to-plug-security-gaps-across-ecor-network/>
  Adds Rath Yatra and Meri Saheli details

This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry.

Tags: DGCA, East Coast Railway, Odisha, Railway Protection Force
Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/ecor-leads-indian-railways-in-drone-surveillance-plans-11-more-by-march/
License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources.
Cite: https://indianopinion.org/ecor-leads-indian-railways-in-drone-surveillance-plans-11-more-by-march/#story-in-brief

How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/