In a huge fillip for India’s budding commercial drone sector, the first trials for the delivery of MMR, influenza and COVID-19 vaccines in the southern state of Telangana began on 11th September, 2021 and will continue for the next 28 days in designated air corridors in Vikarabad district, Telangana.

(Prem Kumar Vislawath, Founder & Chief Innovator, Marut Dronetech at the trials in Vikarabad, Telangana)

The trials have been organized by the World Economic Forum in partnership with the state government of Telangana, Apollo Hospital’s HealthNet Global and NITI Aayog. Starting off with the first ever drone delivery of a vaccine in India, the trials are focused on laying the groundwork for a more elaborate drone delivery network that will improve access to vital healthcare supplies for remote and vulnerable communities. This is also the first drone programme since India recently liberalized its drone policy in late August.

“Ever since Telangana issued the expression of interest in expanded drone use in March 2020, the industry has witnessed an acceleration around policy decisions,” said Vignesh Santhanam, Lead, Aerospace and Drones, World Economic Forum. “With the latest liberalization of India’s drone economy the Medicine from the Sky initiative has made efforts to invigorate the drone sector in India by demonstrating the essence of cooperative federalism and creating a template for the region.”

Hyderabad-based drone startup Marut Drones’ Hepicopter was officially flagged off as India’s first medical delivery platform and medical delivery drone by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation and KT Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology of Telangana. For the next year, Hepicopter will move COVID19 vaccines and other critical vaccines within the Vikarabad district in Telangana. The drones will be serving around 15 public health centres (PHCs) in and around 30 kilometres of the district and all drones will be operated from its central hub in the district hospital of Vikarabad.

(Union Min for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia surveys the Hepicopter at Vikarabad, Telangana)

Prem Kumar Vislawath, founder & chief innovator of Marut Dronetech, said, “The delivery works on a hub-and-spoke model. The team gets a message on the inventory needed. This is loaded at the central hub, and the drones take off, after the regular pre-flight tests and checks of wind conditions, audio pilot systems, and GPS tracker. The coordinates are fed into the systems and the health examiner picks up the vials at the drop-off point.” Marut Dronetech is working with Public Health Foundation of India, Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH) and Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for the experiment.

The Hepicopter Medical Delivery drone is accessible through a mobile app to enable medical delivery drones penetrate into the remote inaccessible areas where PHCs providers can get daily supplies at a click of a button within a few minutes. Blood, vaccines, diagnostic medical samples and long-tail medicines can be delivered using the Hepicopter.

Hepicopter 1.0 is a multirotor wing battery-powered drone with a payload capacity of with 30kgs, India's largest Heavy Payload(carries 16Kgs) Medical Delivery with modular multiple temperature control boxes in High Altitude Operations and Long Range (40Kms) exclusively for autonomous BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operations in India. This drone can keep 4 boxes and each box can carry up to 10 units of blood and over 500 doses of vaccines. So, on a single flight, they can deliver 2000 to 3,000 doses of vaccines. Hepicopter 2.0 is a landing rotary-wing, gasoline-powered drone with a payload capacity of 5 kg, a maximum endurance limit of 80 mins, a range of 80 km and a flying altitude of 400 ft to 12,000ft. This drone can keep 2 boxes and can carry up to 1,000 doses of vaccines.

“This pilot has been enabled through a series of collaborations between India’s regulatory agencies state government, the World Economic Forum, international organizations, healthcare experts and drone companies,” said Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, Frontier Technologies, NITI Aayog, Government of India. “The Medicine from the Sky community has acted as an important platform providing advice and insight that has translated the extensive academic groundwork into action on ground. Through a highly collaborative effort, the pilot programme also demonstrates the importance of localized inputs and micro planning for healthcare in remote parts of the world.”

(Medicines being loaded on the Hepicopter)

Marut Drones is a leader in leveraging AI, IoT and predictive analytics to make drone movements more efficient. In addition to Hepicopter, Marut Drones also offers Marut ZAP, Seedcopter, Agricopter and Surveycopter. With the recent easing of restrictions in commercial drone operations, coupled with the rise of drone applications for multiple sectors, there is huge potential for many startups and SMEs to create innovative use cases and applications.

Also Read:

Civil Aviation Ministry liberalises drone operations in India 

Startup of the Week: Building sustainable and scalable drone applications