NEW DELHI, Apr 22: The India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in partnership with the IIT-Kanpur, will soon start conducting experiments for a feasibility study of using drones for the delivery of vaccines.
The ICMR was granted the conditional exemption for the use of drones by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday. The Centre said in a release that the exemption will be valid for a period of one year or until further orders.
The ICMR had filed an application in February seeking permission to conduct a feasibility study to deliver Covid-19 vaccines using drones. The government said the medical research body will have to get clearance on its standard operating procedures (SOPs) from the DGCA.
As per the release, conditional exemption has also been granted to a few entities and civic bodies to carry out study of using drones. These are: the municipal corporations of Dehradun, Haldwani, Haridwar and Rudrapur for preparation of GIS based property database and electronic tax register; the Kota and Katni divisions of West Central Railway for train accident site and maintaining safety and security of the railway assets.
Drones have been very useful in providing last mile deliveries, and reaching places which are difficult to access. In India, they have been used by authorities in some cities to keep a check at crowd when the Covid-19 pandemic spread last year.
In Ghana, a delivery service Zipline has been using drones to give Covid-19 vaccines to people living in remote areas.
(Manas Dasgupta)
