Skye Air Mobility, a New Delhi-based drone startup, in collaboration with Redcliffe Labs, launched drone flights on December 6 to transport diagnostic test samples from Uttarkashi to Sahastradhara (Dehradun) in Uttarakhand in just 90 minutes.
The same distance by road takes 6-8 hours and around 12 hours during landslides.
Redcliffe Labs will operate daily flights for the collection of routine and specialised test samples. The drones will fly between Skye Air's hubs in Uttarkashi and Dehradun. The hubs will be connected further and will transmit real-time flight information to Skye Air's Central Command Centre in Gurugram.
"Given Uttarkashi's hilly terrain, the region has limited connectivity that consequently acts as a barrier to accessibility of high-quality diagnostic services,” said Dheeraj Jain, founder of Redcliffe Labs.
Jain claims that with these drone deliveries, residents will no longer need to travel to larger cities for diagnostic needs.
"Moreover, with the help of drone delivery the turnaround time for these samples can be restricted to a day, which usually in a place like Uttarkashi used to take more than 24 hours," he added.
Using drones, the company intends to assist 500 million citizens with their diagnostic needs.
"The current form of logistics simply do not work for the healthcare industry in such hilly terrains. The need is to have a solution which provides faster, sustainable and scalable supply -- drones rightly fit into elevating deliveries," said Ankit Kumar, CEO of Skye Air Mobility.
Last month, the startup announced the completion of its $1.7 million seed round led by Chiratae Ventures.
The round also saw participation from investors like Lead Angels, O2 Angels, Agility Ventures, Lets Venture and several marquee names including Rajeev Chitrabhanu, Ankit Nagori, Varun Alagh, Gautam Badalia, Ayush Lohia, and others.
Skye Air has taken on several drone delivery projects in recent months. It carried out a long-range delivery of medicines for Flipkart Health+ in Kolkata and surrounding areas in August.
In July, it conducted frozen food delivery trials in Gurugram in partnership with Curefoods. It also used drones to deliver essential medicines and critical lab samples from Kozhikode to Areekode in Kerala's Malappuram district. A similar project was taken up in Bengaluru.
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