Meghalaya: Drone Station Set up for Delivery of Medicines

SHILLONG: In the first achievement in this field, medicines weighing 1.5 kg of medicines were successfully delivered to a remote location of Meghalaya. This marked the flagging off of the first drone station for medicine transportation in the Jengjal Subdivision Hospital located in the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya.

The drone in use has been created and operated by a startup named TechEagle. The delivery was completed successfully within 36 minutes, which is nearly two hours lesser than the time taken to reach the destination by road.

"This drone has a capacity of flying with a payload of up to 4 kg. We expect larger drones by March 2023 for delivering up to 25 kg of medicines, anti-snake venom vials and other healthcare necessities," mentioned the project director of the Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project.

The Jengjal Subdivision Hospital is located about 32 km from Tura, the second largest urban location of the state of Meghalaya after the capital city of Shillong. It was chosen as the base for the drones used in the project. It is expected to serve rural healthcare facilities located within a radius of fifty kilometres and have problems with connectivity. The drone station has been set up after a year of the first successful pilot project. Medications from a civil hospital were delivered to two primary health centres in the West Khasi Hill district of the state during the pilot project.

The state government attempts to use a large fleet of high-capacity drones to serve the region. Apart from the healthcare sector, these drones will also be utilised in the agriculture sector by transporting seeds, medicines and other necessary materials, thus decreasing dependency on roads for the delivery of lightweight materials.

Recently similar pilot projects have seen success in the Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Also Read: Arunachal Govt Launches Ambitious 'Medicine from the Sky' Project

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