India’s plan to utilise drones to deliver Covid-19 vaccines is at least a year away from take-off.
This because there is as yet no legislation that permits long-range drone flights in the country, according to senior government officials.
The government signalled that it is looking to use drones in its battle against the raging Covid-19 pandemic by granting two exemptions to conduct experimental drone deliveries of vaccines. However, actual deliveries to citizens are some time away.
“This is an experiment in a defined airspace and not actual delivery (of vaccines) to citizens. Actual vaccine delivery is at least a year away,” said a senior government official. “It may not be prudent to rush this through considering the risks to public safety, national security and privacy.”
The official added that Covid-19 vaccine deliveries would become possible only after conducting long-range drone experiments, analysing the test results, introducing draft guidelines, inviting public feedback and introducing legislation.
Permits can be given to drone operators only after that.
The government on Friday said it had granted conditional exemptions to Telangana for experimental delivery of Covid-19 vaccines using drones, as well as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting feasibility studies of using drones to deliver vaccines along with IIT Kanpur.
In its statement, the government said the intention of granting these permissions was to “achieve the dual objectives of faster vaccine delivery and improved healthcare access” by limiting human exposure in Covid-prone areas and also increasing access to healthcare in remote areas.
Both permissions were granted only for drone flights within the visual line of sight or VLOS, where the drones will not be allowed to fly beyond the operator’s line of sight.
Guidelines under India’s DigitalSky framework define visual line of sight as 450 metres in conditions where visibility on the ground is 5 kilometres.
“This is like the Covid-19 drug trial. We can’t release something without following a process, however fast we may go through the exemption route. This has security and safety implications,” said another official.
Experts tracking the sector said the government’s current clearances are “pointless” as deliveries using drones require them to be tested over long distances.
“How can anyone test drone deliveries if the maximum flight distance allowed is just 450-500 metres,” said an expert tracking the sector. “Drone deliveries will need to be tested over full-service distances because you need to test for navigational accuracy, maximum time of operation, apart from many other things.”
In May 2019, India’s civil aviation regulator had floated an expression of interest to conduct experimental beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights.
A year later, 13 consortia including those floated by SpiceJet, ShopX, Dunzo, Anra Technologies and Throttle Aerospace were approved to participate in the exercise.
However, not a single BVLOS experimental flight has taken off.
If India had completed its BVLOS experiments on time, the country would have had several drone providers that might have been able to aid it in its vaccine deployments, the expert said.
The Telangana state government is, however, looking to roll out full-fledged vaccine deliveries using drones before the close of the current calendar year, if all permissions fall in place.
In its proposal, the state has said that it has identified eight consortiums (all of whom had been selected under the DGCA’s BVLOS experiment) to conduct its vaccine delivery experiments in Vikarabad district, which has been given clearance by the Airports Authority of India for use of airspace.
“We have planned this in three waves,” said L Rama Devi, Director of Emerging Technologies, Telangana IT Department. “Assuming that we get the BVLOS permissions by the end of May, by June we will complete Wave 1, then July, August, September will be Wave 2 and maybe from October-November onwards we’ll build a case for commercial operations.”
The state is currently awaiting permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs to operate its drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) to kick off its first phase of vaccine delivery trials using drones.
ET could not reach ICMR and IIT Kanpur for comment.
