Groceries by drones may be closer than you think
PremiumDrone Rules 2021 have substantially eased drone ops across the country, especially in cities
NEW DELHI : Worries about food, grocery, and other deliveries reaching you on time, past traffic snarls, may soon become a thing of the past. If drone delivery companies have their way, such airborne deliveries using drones will be rolled out in the coming months.
While it is a challenge to operate drones in urban areas, the updated Drone Rules 2021 have substantially eased drone operations across the country, and especially in cities, said Swapnik Jakkampudi, co-founder, and chief technology officer at Skye Air Mobility, a company specializing in drone deliveries.
It has partnered with Dunzo to conduct trials and the roll-out. “The new set of regulations gives us a path to do this (drone delivery in cities)," Jakkampudi told Mint.
Commercial deliveries using drones could start soon but will be executed in stages, he added.
The new rules issued last year have simplified forms and fee structure and created a smoother procedure for drone operations.
It has abolished the requirement of several approvals such as a certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance and operator permit, unique authorization number, unique prototype identification number and certificate of manufacturing and airworthiness.
The government has also released India’s airspace map for drone operations that demarcates where drones are flown (green zone), not flown (red list) or flown only with permissions (yellow zone).
“Using drones in urban areas, you will always have to map out your path properly, carefully plan routes, perform pre-flight checks, scouting, and have all other systems in place," he said.
“Major challenges include mapping out different sectors, different landing, take-off zones and creating flight paths while taking all safety precautions. Permissions will also have to be sought for flying over yellow zones," he added.
Apart from partnering Dunzo for trials and subsequent roll-out of delivery of grocery, food, and other goods using drones in Karnataka, Skye Air Mobility has also partnered with Bluedart, Dunzo and Flipkart consortiums for drone trials for medicines and vaccines deliveries under the Telangana government’s Medicine from the Sky project. “We have completed our trials with Dunzo and are coordinating with them on what to do next, and how to take it forward," Jakkampudi said, and added that the trials involved over 100 hours of trial flights, including night flights.
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“While the trials are over, we are currently awaiting the second stage where the government will allocate routes and corridors for connecting different government-run healthcare facilities across the state," Jakkampudi added.
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