For the last two weeks, city-based start-up Garuda Aerospace has been disinfecting hospitals, tall buildings and public places through its locally-built drones to combat the onslaught of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu.

“In the last few days, we have deployed 300 drones and 500 drone pilots to disinfect 50,000 acres covering public places, colleges, education institutions, hotels and private hospitals in 26 cities,” said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder and president, Garuda Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. “This is being done with the help of our drones and reduces the risk of sanitation workers to a large extent,” he said.

The four-and-a-half-year-old company is also doing a pilot project in Raipur covering initially 770 acres, for spraying sanitizer across 180 sq.km. Besides, the company has received enquiries from Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

“We started this company to use our drones for spraying pesticides, mapping, surveillance, crowd management, including public announcements by the police and forest officials, aerial inspections, power-line stringing, and to avert wildlife poaching. Now, it is being used for disinfecting buildings, vehicles and public places,” he said.

Asked about the advantages of using drones, he said that these drones were designed to carry payloads of 15-20 kg and could cover 20 km in a day, against humans who could cover only four to five km per day. Spraying tall buildings could be done with the click of a remote. These drones are made in Chennai, with a small percentage of import component. The company makes five different versions of drones. “It is affordable and cost-effective,” he said.

Going forward, the company plans to use its hybrid drones that can run on petrol and battery for delivery of food and medicines at the doorstep for last-mile connectivity.