The Centre launches a pilot project on the use of indigenously manufactured drones for delivering medicines and vaccines to the undulating landscape of Jammu and surrounding areas.
“This is going to be a pilot project for the area. The drone is developed and manufactured entirely by our scientists,”
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh
The drone is developed by the scientists at Bengaluru’s National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), an autonomous society that is headed by the Prime Minister.
Initially, the drone delivery will be limited to Covid vaccines, following the success of which, it would gradually be expanded for regular delivery of medicines in the remote, hilly areas.
Considering the sensitive location of the state, and the recent attack on an Army installation using drones, The drones would only be deployed by authorized agencies such as hospitals, not anybody can use it, nor would any random person be permitted to use it, a top official from the Ministry of S&T said.
The drone which is to be used for deliveries in Jammu is named ‘Octacopter’ by the NAL. It can fly at an operational altitude of 500 m AGL and a maximum flying speed of 36 kmph. It can be used for a variety of BVLOS applications for last-mile delivery like medicines, vaccines, food, postal packets, Human organs (such as a heart for heart transplantation), etc.
Integrated with a powerful onboard embedded computer, the NAL Octacopter is also equipped with the latest generation sensors for versatile applications like agricultural pesticide spraying, crop monitoring, mining survey, magnetic geo survey mapping, etc., S&T officials had said.
