Odisha: Drones to spray disinfectants on Bhubaneswar roads amid COVID-19 outbreak

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is using drones to undertake sanitation drive across the city amid the spread of coronavirus.

The civic body utilised the unmanned ariel vehicles to spray disinfectants on major roads of the city on Tuesday.

This is part of a trial sanitation drive to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the city.

"These are the demo exercises. We are conducting in a 1.5 km stretch to analyse the cost, manpower and time. After this, we will compare it with other options. If this method turns out to be cost-effective then we will continue to use drones," Suvendu Sahoo, DC Sanitation, BMC said.

Out the total of three drones, one will be deployed solely to spray the disinfectants. The width of the spray would be around 5 meters which will cover a stretch of 1.5 kilometres of the road.

The second drone would be used by the authorities for creating public awareness about the safety measures to battle coronavirus and the third drone will be used for conducting surveillance.

Officials said that locals have been asked to stay indoors during this exercise, considering the health hazards of sodium hypochlorite.

According to the Health Ministry, there are a total of 55 cases of coronavirus in Odisha. 18 people have recovered from the illness while the state has reported one death.

The country has reported 10,363 COVID-19 cases so far. Out of the total, 1036 have been cured and 339 have died due to the infection.