Gurugram, June 10 (IANS): The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) intends to high-tech methods to prevent incidents of fire in the Bandhwari landfill site.

MCG officials said that the civic body is working on a plan to use thermal camera drones. With the help of drones, the heat levels of the garbage dumps will be easily detected even during the night hours, they said.

This will help in controlling future fire incidents on time. This week, a demonstration to this end will be held at the Bandhwari site and will be conducted by a private company.

It is pertinent to mention that more than 20 incidents of fire have occurred at Bandhwari in recent times. Currently, about 13 lakh tonnes of garbage is lying here and private agencies are disposing of it.

"Fire in the garbage heaps is caused by methane gas. Methane gas is formed under the garbage and when the temperature rises, the garbage catches fire as soon as the methane comes in contact with air. Despite all efforts, incidents of fire in garbage are not stopping," said a senior MCG official.

An official said fire incidents occur only in the upper part of the garbage mountain. Fire engines face difficulty in spraying water there and the fire spreads as soon as the wind speeds up. Due to this, there is a plan to monitor the garbage mountain by flying a thermal sensor camera drone.

"The modern thermal sensor camera in the drone will detect the places on the garbage heap where the temperature is high and send the thermal image to the control room and app link. These sensor-equipped drones will be able to trace the heat in the garbage heap even in the dark of night.

As soon as the control room alert is received, the staff posted in Bandhwari and the fire department will come into action. After which the temperature will be controlled by sprinkling water," Dr. Balpreet Singh, Additional Municipal Commissioner said.