An Assam government institute has signed an MoU with IIT Guwahati to train its officers and field personnel in drone technology.

An IIT-G statement said it was the “first instance across the country” where training on drone technology will be imparted to all levels of officers and is also a unique step to integrate knowledge-based technological advancement as part of the training curriculum for state officials.

The MoU was signed at the Assam Survey and Settlement Training Centre (ASSTC) office here on Wednesday between the ASSTC and IITG in presence of Jogen Mohan, minister of revenue and disaster management.

The Centre was set up as the Assam Survey School in 1882 and renamed as the ASSTC in 1988 and is today a premier government survey training institute for aspiring revenue department officials and field-level personnel among others.

“It is a historic day as this collaboration will definitely help in bringing significant changes in the field of modern land management and capacity building of our officers and field functionaries. The MoU will further boost scientific research on lands settlement in the state.… This MoU is a great step towards helping the region,” Mohan said.

IIT Guwahati said it will conduct courses related to drone operation, training, maintenance, data collection, application in various sectors, theory classes on modern land management, research and projects by leveraging their respective expertise in this area.

Drone-based technologies can be extremely useful for land survey, river mapping, forest cover, agriculture sector, highway/traffic monitoring, border surveillance, by providing real-time information and data at a time scale not possible manually or by other means in Assam and the northeast which is vulnerable to various natural calamities such as floods, landslides, erosion and forest fire.

Last year, drones were used to deliver medicines in Meghalaya and they are also being used to map disputed inter-state border areas in Assam.

As part of the MoU, IIT Guwahati will impart training to the government administrative and technical staff engaged in land survey and settlement as well as to private candidates.

The course will be launched this month, initially for 50 field-level staffers and 30 officers of the revenue department, sources said. The duration of course work will be of one week for recorder’s certificate class course students and four days for officers, including one examination/submission of project report/presentation at the end of the session.

IITG director Prof T.G. Sitharam said: “IIT Guwahati specifically recognises this futuristic step and we look forward to technology-based networking, and academic training programs both on campus as well as on-site and support other technology-based initiatives for the state and the region’s socio-economic benefit.”