Medicine delivery in India to take the aerial route

India has decided to start delivering medicines, vaccines, and other essentials via drones and has greenlit about 20 trial projects. The two main projects amongst the 20 are TAS-led medicinal delivery trials in Bengaluru and Flipkart-led Medicines from the Sky in Telangana.

India has long been conscious of the use of drones in any deliveries across the country. India has used drones to deliver food and medications in flood hid areas but never beyond that. But now, the nation faces a monumental challenge of providing vaccines to all areas of the country, and to help with that process, the government of India has greenlit 20 trial projects, with the first one starting on June 18, 2021.

Since there are trials that will dictate the future of drone deliveries in India, the approved groups are not given a free hand to do as they please. Therefore, these trials will happen in a regulatory sandbox under the supervision of a monitoring team.

TAS led medicinal delivery trials in Bengaluru.

A group led by Throttle Aerospace Systems or TAS will begin its trials beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) medical drones from June 18 onwards. It plans to deliver medicines by drones for 30-45 days starting in Gauribidanur taluk, around 80 km from Bengaluru.

The company will use two variants of drones – the smaller drone can deliver a payload of up to 1 kg and has a range of 15 km, while the other variant can carry up to 2kg with a range of 12 km.

The guidelines from the DGCA mandate them to fly for a minimum of 100 hours; however, TAS is planning to fly for at least 125 hours during this trial. This trial, along with delivering medicines, will also help Narayana Healthcare assess the long-term feasibility of drones.

Another critical aspect of this trial will be the attempt to improve user privacy; the drone delivery service provider will be unaware of the recipient of the medicines and will only work to deliver the medication to a preloaded address.

Flipkart led Medicines from the Sky in Telangana.

Flipkart is teaming up with the ITE&C Department of the Government of Telangana to implement their initiative called ‘Medicine from the Sky.’ This initiative aims to deploy drones over areas with complicated terrains and hard-to-access paths. The primary load to be carried by these drones will be medical supplies.

India’s first drones to deliver vaccines for covid-19 strains are expected to take off in the next couple of weeks. The executive said that 10,000 vials of the drugs would be transported from a central location to various health centers in the state.

The flights will only be carrying essential items within the Visual Line of Sight. They will then embark on delivering medicines in isolated areas. The project will last for 24 days with four batches of deliveries for Covid-19 patients. The drones will take their first flight in the Vikarabad district, and the first phase of flights is expected to begin in the last week of June.

By the time it is completed, the project aims to study the various factors that affect the adoption of drones in healthcare. Through the study, the government will formulate policies and solutions that will help integrate drones into the supply chain.