Drone manufacturing park in Visakhapatnam yet to take off

VIJAYAWADA: The drone manufacturing unit established by the AP Innovation Society in Visakhapatnam is yet to start production. Though the officials planned to start production and bring out at least one AP-made drone this year itself, the project got delayed due to various reasons and now the officials are planning to come up the first drone from the unit in 2008.

Though the much-awaited project secured all the clearances from the State government in June, the project got delayed due to shortage of funds. Delhi-based company OmniPresent is the partner company of the project and the society is planning to manufacture atleast 25 drones per month.

With an estimated budget of `1.25 crore, the AP Innovation Society set up the drone manufacturing unit in Visakhapatnam and planned to start production by September.  However, due to financial problems of the AP Innovation Society and technical glitches on the part of the  partner company, Omnipresent, the production got delayed.

Officials of AP Innovation Society say that production will start by the last week of October or November.
CEO of the AP Innovation Society V Valli Kumari said, “We wanted to make ‘Made in AP’ drones rather than the imported ones from China. Though we planned to start production by September, it got delayed due to various reasons like updation of technologies and some technical glitches.

So finally, we will start production in the month end or in November and bring out the first ‘made in AP’ drone by January 2018. The Delhi team will soon visit the unit and start the manufacturing process.” The drones to be manufactured in the unit will be sold at costs ranging from `1.5 lakh to `4 lakh. High-end drones with face mapping and people-tracking abilities will be manufactured at the unit.

In fact, every department of the State government required drones and officials are expecting to supply a large number of drones to the State government itself. Delhi-based robotics and drone technology company Omnipresent will run the manufacturing unit.  All the establishment costs and employee salaries will be borne by the State government and the company will recruit people from the State and run the unit.