Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct.4: Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Health Minister, launched the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) drone response and outreach programme (called i-Drone) for the Northeast region on Monday. The effort, which started in Nagaland, is the government’s first move toward deploying drones to administer Covid-19 vaccination to distant areas of the country. The ICMR-led pilot project for Nagaland, Manipur, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been approved.
“This is the first commercial flying of a drone in South Asia. A distance of 31km was covered in 13-15 minutes. It’s not only for vaccine supply; we’ll also transport blood samples and essential medicines using drones in the future,” said Mandaviya.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had granted a conditional exemption to ICMR for conducting a feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones earlier this year. ICMR has collaborated with IIT-Kanpur for this project.
The center said the exemption will last for a year or until more orders are placed. Following approval, HLL Infra Tech Services Limited began testing delivery of medical supplies (vaccines / drugs) by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to selected locations in India on behalf of ICMR.
Drones have proven very useful in providing last-mile supplies and reaching hard-to-reach places. In India, authorities in some cities used them to control crowds when the Covid-19 pandemic spread last year.
