PremiumNEW DELHI : The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently granted conditional exemption to the Telangana government for deployment of drones to conduct experimental delivery of covid-19 vaccines. The government has also given conditional exemption to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting feasibility study of covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur. These permissions are valid for a period of one year or until further orders. We look at how delivery of vaccines using drones is set to be a reality.
How will drone delivery of vaccines help?
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Premium Vaccinating over a billion people across different geographies and topography of the country is going to be a huge challenge for the government. The government will rely on the country's railway network, considered the world's largest, road and air for delivery of vaccines across the country, including to remote areas in the mountains. However, looking at the enormous scale of the situation, every possible option for vaccine delivery will be considered, including the use of drones for delivery. Drone-based distribution systems, for which various feasibility studies are being conducted, could be an efficient method of transporting vaccines, especially to remote parts of the country, where traditional logistic channels may find difficult to reach, said a senior official with the DGCA.
What kind of feasibility studies will be carried out?
The study will be carried out at the IIT-Kanpur campus. This feasibility study will be divided into several stages. The first stage will require the drone to remain in the line of sight of the drone operator, so that the operator can see the drone at all times. If the first stage is deemed successful, then the next stage of trials will involve operating the drone beyond the line of sight of the operator. If these stages are successfully completed, further clearance will be sought from the authorities, MoCA and DGCA, which will take us closer to making delivery of vaccines through drones a reality.
Have vaccines been successfully delivered by drones elsewhere?
Some foreign countries have been working on vaccine delivery using drones. For instance, Ghana has started off one of the largest drone delivery vaccine networks in the world. Ghana’s government has tapped US-based firm Zipline to deliver the first vaccines supplied to Africa by the COVAX initiative, a project launched with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that developing countries have access to covid-19 vaccines. Zipline has previously transported blood and drugs in Rwanda and medical supplies and PPE in North Carolina.
What are the major challenges?
Premium Premium India's armed forces and military have been using drones with payload delivery capability since early 2000 and learnings from their experience can help mitigate some challenges.
However, major challenges for vaccine transportation using immediate deployment of drones and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are maintaining low temperature conditions during the transportation of vaccine vials, and the government and drone operators coming to an agreement on emergency airspace usage for vaccine transportation, said Mark Martin, chief executive of aviation consultancy firm Martin Consultancy LLC.
"As part of covid vaccine Transportation, India has the potential of using up to five UAV/drone per district with a range of 80km and with a payload delivery of 10 kg and endurance of 2 hours. With 718 districts in India, a total of 3,600 drones can be easily deployed, for operations to distribute 3,600 kg of effective weight of vaccines each flight, or 15,000 kg vaccine distribution capability in a single day," Martin added.
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