CHENNAI: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Saturday deployed drones to spray larvicide on water bodies in the city to address the problem of mosquito menace.
Drones from the avionics wing of Anna University have been put into use for this purpose.
The scheme was inaugurated by Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi at the Cooum river bed in Royapuram zone on Saturday morning.
Officials said drones will be utilised to spray larvicide across Cooum, Adyar and Buckingham canal.
It will be able to access a wider acreage as compared to humans.
This is mainly because drones will be able to access areas where humans will find it difficult.
Also, it’s a safer technology given that the malaria workers will have lesser contact with the chemicals.
As compared to larvicide spray of once every week, drones will spray a particular spot once every 10 days.
GCC plans to compare the efficacy of this method by comparing mosquito menace complaints given by residents as compared to previous years.
GCC employs 3420 permanent and contractual malaria workers who spray larvicides through hand-held and vehicular fogging machines.