Telangana’s Medicine from the Sky project to deliver vaccines a step closer to reality

(File Image: AFP)

Telangana is all set to commence a series of drone trials that could transform how remote areas in the country are supplied with essentials. 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 are those that go beyond 500–700 metres from the eye’s vision or beyond the visual line of sight.

The trials will see at least eight consortia participating, including Helicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), Redwing, CurisFly (Tech Eagle) and Dunzo Med Air Consortium (Skye Air).

“This will be the first live demonstration,” said Ankit Kumar, Managing Partner, Alternative Global India, adding that trials are being conducted in realtime with real vaccines being carried.

Delivering medical essentials

The BVLOS trials will involve various steps to streamline drone flights for delivery of Covid-19 vaccines and other essential items such as blood and drugs in the months to come.

“Typically the first two days of the trials will be flying in the visual line of sight, which involves drones flying between 500 to 700 meters from the base — they can be seen with the naked eye. On the next four days BVLOS drone flights will take place. The number of daily drone flights could vary from four to seven for each consortium. These flights will be with consignments of vaccine vials,” Kumar says.

Swapnik Jakkampuddi, Co-Founder, Skye Air Mobility, adds that the evaluation will be through a three-step plan. “The first step is trials. In the next couple of rounds they are going to evaluate the best solution in the different stages (of the trials) and then start implementing these across the State. While initially the delivery is for vaccines, it is eventually planned to expand delivery to carry medicines and blood, among other things,” he adds.

According to Jakkampuddi, 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.

“State hospitals may have a lot more inventory of vaccines compared to small primary healthcare centres (PHC) in villages. This could be for a variety of reasons like no demand or because they do not have the infrastructure for storage. So, whenever a need arises, the primary healthcare centre should be able to order the vaccines quickly and these should also be delivered quickly,” he says.

Big implications for remote support

Kumar adds that the trials will reduce the time to address the urgent requirements of a remote PHC. Moreover, the material reaching it will have a lower probability of damage as it is carried in a box that maintains the temperature between 2 to 8 degrees.

“It is very good from the perspective of the cold chain scenario in the country. If the model is successful, it can be implemented across the country. The learnings from these trials are likely to be used to enhance the use of drones in the State and possibly in other parts of the country,” he said.

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 acceded 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.

The State government explored the use of drones to increase access to healthcare for communities across the State in October 2019. “Using drones to deliver blood and other medical goods to people in remote and inaccessible areas is an exemplary project that demonstrates the use of technology for the social good,” KT Rama Rao, Telangana’s Minister for IT and Electronics and Communication, Industries and Municipal Administration and Urban Development, said in a media statement in October 2019.