Medicine from the Sky: Drone delivers medicines to Arunachal's remote areas

Itanagar: After Meghalaya, drone-based services were launched in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday to deliver medicines and other healthcare essentials in the remote, mountainous and far-flung areas to save time and costs, officials said.

Gurugram-based 'TechEagle' has developed the drone-based services and launched it in collaboration with the Arunachal Pradesh government and World Economic Forum.

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The operations have been started to enable "Medicines from the Sky" for the remote areas of Lower Subansiri District. The project was flagged off by Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Alo Libang.

Officials said that the drone took off from Ziro Valley and transported the cargo (medicine) to Chambang, covering an aerial distance of 31 km, in just 21 minutes.

The drone took off from Ziro Valley with a payload of 1.5 kg, carrying Diclofenac tablets and Adrenaline Injection, and on its return flight from Chambang to Ziro Valley, the drone carried blood samples for testing.

Apparently, the time taken by a vehicle to travel between Ziro Valley to Chambang by road takes around 8 hours.

TechEagle's indigenously developed drone delivery solution transported the items around 24 times faster compared to ground transportation, a statement said.

It said that the project is aimed at improving the lives of people as they have to trek for reaching particular remotest parts of the state.

For the project, TechEagle's state-of-the-art drone delivery solution will ensure regular and consistent transportation of life-saving drugs and other emergency healthcare items to save and improve the lives of people residing in the hard-to-reach areas of the state.

Commenting on the launch, Anshu Abhishek, COO and Co-Founder of TechEagle, said: "The 'Medicines From the Sky' initiative is something which is very near to the hearts of people at TechEagle as the initiative is greatly aligned with our vision of saving and improving billions of lives by the solution that we are building, also it is one of the initial projects that we have been part of in Telangana in 2021."

Vignesh Santhanam, India Lead, Aerospace and Drones, World Economic Forum said: "This is a crucial breakthrough for the Medicine from the Sky initiative. We are targeting a more nationalised initiative that can incorporate key principles from Arunachal Pradesh. The greater idea is to train our drones for unique scenarios -- geopolitical, topographic, regulatory, and operational to ensure subsequent initiatives are comprehensive, safe, and replicable."

In 2021, TechEagle had successfully completed Asia's first cold chain Vaccine delivery by Drones in Telangana with the World Economic Forum's Medicine from the Sky Initiative.

On December 5, TechEagle developed Asia's first drone delivery hub built at the Jengjal Sub-Divisional Hospital in West Garo Hills district was launched by Meghalaya's Health and Family Welfare Minister James P.K. Sangma.

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