Centre Permits Telangana Govt To Use Drones For Delivery Of Covid Vaccine

The exemption has been granted from Unmanned Aircraft System {UAS) Rules, 2021 and will be valid for a period of one year.

On Friday, the ministry said in a statement said that it has granted a conditional exemption to the Telangana government from the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021, for "conducting experimental delivery of vaccines" beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) using drones.

The Telangana government is likely to start the trails by the end of May.

On April 30, the ministry had permitted the Telangana government to use drones for experimental delivery of Covid-19 vaccines within the visual line of sight.

In order to accelerate the drone deployment process to formulate application-based models, the grant has been extended to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The trials may commence by end of May 2021.

On April 22, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was granted conditional exemption last month for conducting a feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones in collaboration with IIT Kanpur.

The ministry in a statement said that the maximum permitted height for drone operations is 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL).

The conditions further mention that Drone operations shall be limited between local sunrise and local sunset.

The Union health ministry said on Friday that cumulatively 16,49,73,058 vaccine doses have been administered through 24,11,300 sessions across India, as per the provisional report till 7 am.

With a record 4,14,188 new coronavirus infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, India's total tally of Covid-19 cases climbed to 2,14,91,598 on Friday, while the count of active cases crossed the 36 lakh-mark, according to the health ministry.

The death toll has increased to 2,34,083 with 3,915 fatalities being reported in a day, the data uploaded by the ministry showed.