Telangana’s Medicine From the Sky From September 11

Hyderabad: The ‘Medicine from the Sky’ is an initiative of the Government of Telangana, spearheaded by the Emerging Technologies Wing of the ITE&C Department, in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals). The project entails undertaking experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for delivery of vaccines using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district.

The project has received the final regulatory nod from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to conduct the operations, and hence the launch event has now been planned for 11th September. Ahead of the launch, three of the eight selected consortia namely Bluedart Med Express Consortium (Skye Air), Hepicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), and CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations) have already reached Vikarabad and have started testing of their drones via VLOS and BVLOS flights.

The launch shall be conducted at the Police Parade Ground at the SP Office of Vikarabad District and shall be graced by the Hon’ble Minister for Civil Aviation, Govt. of India; Hon’ble Minister for IT, Industries and MAUD, Govt. of Telangana; CEO, NITI Aayog; Joint Managing Director, Apollo Group; and the India Lead, Aerospace and Drones, World Economic Forum.

With the launch, the consortia would continue to further test the endurance of their drones over increasing longer distances and heavier payloads to establish the reliability. The project is first-of-its-kind in India as it is the first organized BVLOS drone trials in the country and the same are being conducted in healthcare as the domain.