- NET Web Desk
The Civil Aviation Ministry announced of granting conditional permission to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the utilization of drones in Manipur and Nagaland.
This initiative has been taken to deliver vaccines Beyond Visual Line of Sight.
The Ministry has permitted ICMR to fly drones upto a height of 3,000 metres to deliver vaccines, the ministry’s statement added.
Besides, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay has also received the conditional permission to use drones for research, development and testing purposes in its own premises.
It is pertinent to mention here that both institutes had sought permission from the Central government to use drones for respective purposes on August 31.
However, Airports Authority of India (AAI) would also approve airspace to both the Institutes, the ministry mentioned in its orders.
“This exemption shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the said airspace clearance and shall be valid for a period of one year from the date of approval of the said airspace clearance or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” – the statement further reads.
The conditional permission for delivery of medicines have also been mentioned for Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Furthermore, on September 11, the Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia had launched ‘Medicines from the Sky’ pilot project at Vikarabad in Telangana.
Under this project, drugs and vaccines will be delivered using drones in 16 ‘green zones’ across the state.
An initiative by Telangana in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals), it was launched on experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights.
It will be used for delivering vaccines using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district.