Telangana to Begin Drone Delivery of Medicines Trials From September 9

Called the Medicine From The Sky Project , the Telangana government will conduct trials for drone delivery of healthcare supplies such as vaccines, medicines, and blood from September 9. The drone trials are slated to transform how essentials are delivered in remote areas.

 On September 9, it will become the first State to start trials of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.

• The trials are likely to continue till mid-October.
• BVLOS drone flights will be used which go beyond 500–700 metres from the eye’s vision or beyond the visual line of sight.
• Eight consortia are participating, including Helicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), Redwing, CurisFly (Tech Eagle) and Dunzo Med Air Consortium (Skye Air).
• On the first two days of the trials, drones will be flying in the visual line of sight and can be seen with the naked eye.
• In the next four days, BVLOS drone flights will take place with consignments of vaccine vials.
• While initially, the delivery is for vaccines, it is eventually planned to expand delivery to carry medicines and blood, among other things.
• The idea is to set up an ecosystem where everything is connected through drones, with different BVLOS drone flights for different destinations and distances at different times.
• The Telangana government has selected 16 PHCs around the Vikarabad area hospital to pilot test ‘Medicine from the sky’ delivery through drones.
• The project was launched when the Ministry of Civil Aviation agreed to the Telangana State government’s request for conditional exemption of the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) 2021 rules in order to conduct BVLOS drone flights for delivery of vaccines. (Inputs From Money Control)                                                               

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