TechEagle – a Gurgaon-based start-up – has partnered with the Meghalaya government to deliver lifesaving medicines by drone.
The company, state government and Smart Village Movement (SVM) have joined together to carry out what is being described as India’s first hybrid e-VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) drone delivery of medicines. The collaboration is aimed at transforming the healthcare supply chain for hard-to-reach populations.
The flight saw a doctor at Nongstoiñ Civil Hospital hand over the required medicines to the TechEagle team. The drugs were loaded onto a drone and took off from the hospital vertically like a helicopter and then made use of its fixed wings to fly like an aeroplane after reaching the mission height. The drone travelled the distance of 25km to Maweit Primary Health Centre at 90kmph. Once reaching the location, it converted back into rotary wing mode to land like a helicopter.
TechEagle’s e-VTOL Aquila X2 delivered the lifesaving drugs successfully in less than 25 minutes.
The company’s state-of-the-art drone delivery technology ensures consistent, safe and reliable distribution of life-saving drugs (medicines, vaccines, blood and other medical essentials) in several parts of the state with the reverse logistics of samples for quick diagnosis.
Commenting on the launch, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was quoted as saying, “I would like to congratulate the entire team of TechEagle, Smart Village Movement and the Health Department who made this very unique and one of a kind project a success. We all know what great technology can do but to be able to use it for the benefit of the citizens of the state, something which is so meaningful to the people. Here the technology has been used for a very good cause. We look forward to using the technology in the long run. Today we have used it for healthcare and in future we hopefully will be able to use this in agriculture and other allied sectors.”