Telangana government has launched ‘Medicine from the Sky’ initiative in partnership with World Economic Forum, Niti Aayog, and HealthNet Global.
Under this project, Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights will be used for delivery of vaccines and drugs using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district.
“Through Medicine From The Sky, Telangana became the first state to pilot Beyond Visual Range of Sight drone delivery of vaccines and essentials’’ said IT minister KT Rama Rao.
The pilot project will be launched in Vikarabad district and the first phase of flights with specific groups are tentatively expected to begin in the last week of June.
“The objective of Medicine from the Sky is to generate insights that can drive future adoption strategies and policy interventions for inclusion of drones in healthcare supply chain. The goal is to integrate drone deliveries with existing systems and enable urban grade infrastructure even for remote and rural areas,” said Telangana's Information Technology Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
The airspace in Vikarabad has already been cleared by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).