Medicine delivery by drones to be piloted in 16 zones in Telangana: Scindia

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia on Saturday said Medicines from the Sky' project under which drugs and vaccines are delivered using drones, will be taken up on a pilot basis in 16 green zones in Telangana and scaled up to the national level based on data.

Launching Medicines from the Sky' project here, Scindia said the new Drone Policy brought out by the NDA government at the Centre recently eased rules regarding drone operations in the country by reducing the number of forms that need to be filled to operate them from 25 to 5 and decreasing the types of fee charged from the operator from 72 to 4. Under the Green zone, no permission is needed to fly drones.

Whereas permissions are needed in Yellow zone while Red Zones are no fly areas. In 16 Green Zones this 'Medicines from the Sky' project will be taken up. The data will be analyased for three months. We along with the Health Ministry, IT Ministry, state government and the Centre will together analyse the data and make model for the whole country. Today is a revolutionary day not only for Telangana but for the whole country, the minister said. Scindia said under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Drone Policy was envisaged.

He further said an interactive aerospace map is being prepared. With the help of the map, various zones are being earmarked with the help of states. The Medicine from the Sky' is an initiative of Telangana in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals). The project was launched on experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for delivery of vaccines using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district. Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao requested the Union Minister to establish an Aviation University or Centre of excellence at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.