Dunzo on Tuesday introduced that it’s all set to pilot drone supply of medicines beneath the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ mission launched by the Telangana authorities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The Google-backed supply startup is main a Med-Air consortium together with business consultants to conduct experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone supply flights for the mission that’s aimed to allow emergency medical deliveries that would embody COVID-19 vaccines and different necessities. Dunzo is amongst the entities that have been lately allowed by the central authorities to conduct BVLOS experimental flights utilizing drones.
The drone supply system will concentrate on an end-to-end ecosystem for drone-based logistic transportation and can utilise the prevailing logistics community of the Telangana state to allow medical provides in its completely different districts, Dunzo stated in an announcement. The deliveries will probably be based mostly on the central authorities’s current regulation insurance policies for low-altitude airspace for drones and unmanned aerial automobiles.
Although the precise timeline of the pilot is but to be revealed, Dunzo instructed Gadgets 360 that it was working to roll its drone deliveries out as quickly because it obtained the go-ahead from native authorities.
“We believe our participation in the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project will facilitate a more connected state and country, allowing people almost instantaneous access to vaccines and medicines from the most populous to most remote areas in India in the near future,” Kabeer Biswas, CEO and Founder, Dunzo Digital stated.
The Telangana authorities has partnered with the World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global for the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ mission. This is aimed to guarantee supply of necessities together with medicines and vaccines proceed to be supported amid infrastructural challenges and lockdowns, Dunzo stated.
“Telangana is one of the most proactive states looking to adopt emerging technologies, and the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project using drones is in line with the same principles,” Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana stated. “This project is one of the first such programmes in the country where multiple drones would fly BVLOS to establish their value proposition for the healthcare supply chain.”
Last month, the Ministry of Civil Aviation launched a listing of as many as 20 entities which have been allowed to conduct BVLOS experimental drone flights. That listing included Dunzo alongside corporations corresponding to SpiceJet and Swiggy. That order additionally talked about the ClearSky consortium that has Vodafone Idea and Zomato amongst its 13 contributors.
Dunzo claimed that it has witnessed a 350 p.c progress in medication orders since January, owing to the expansion of COVID-19 unfold within the nation. The startup facilitated the supply of over 20,000 orders to hospitals between March and May. Alongside order deliveries to hospitals, Dunzo stated that it hosted the supply of home-cooked meals, oximeters, and different medical help that resulted in a progress of 204 p.c in its pick-up and drop orders.
Currently accessible in eight cities — Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and Jaipur — Dunzo is planning to tackle the likes of Swiggy Genie and Uber Connect by increasing its operations to 20 cities by 2022.
