New Delhi, September 13 (MExN): The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been granted conditional exemption from Drone Rules, 2021 for vaccine delivery in Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Manipur, an official release informed on September 13.
The permission has been granted to ICMR for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) vaccine delivery in the three locations with upto a height of 3000 meters using drones, the press release from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) stated.
The permission was granted on September 10 after the ICMR sought exemption on August 31, information on the MoCA website stated.
BVLOS is a term relating to operation of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and drones at distances outside the normal visible range of the pilot.
In addition, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has received drone use permission for research, development and testing of drones in its own premises by the MoCA and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), it said.
“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,” it said.
On September 11, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia also launched a first of its kind ‘Medicines from the Sky’ project at Vikarabad in Telangana state under which drugs and vaccines will be delivered using drones, the release said.
