Drone carrying blood component from AIIMS Rishikesh to Pauri crashes

A drone carrying a 2.5-kilogram payload (blood component) from AIIMS Rishikesh to Base Hospital at Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal district crashed nearly 15 to 20 km short of its destination due to bad weather on Monday, said officials from AIIMS Rishikesh

Harish Thapliyal, public relations officer AIIMS Rishikesh, said as part of the institute’s efforts to ensure quick delivery of medicines and samples in remote hilly areas of the state, a drone was sent with a 2.5 kg load of blood components to Kotdwar Base Hospital, over nearly 55 km away. “This distance normally takes over three hours by road, but the drone covers it in just one hour. But due to bad weather, the drone crashed 15 to 20 km before the Kotdwar hospital, hitting the Eucalyptus trees at Jashodpur. The local police have recovered the drone,”he said

He said the 25-kg drone had flown from AIIMS Rishikesh at 12.45pm for Kotdwar Base Hospital. Local people informed police about the incident, he added

He said it was the third trial this year. “Earlier drone test flights taking medicines and samples were successfully held between AIIMS Rishikesh and Tehri district and a village near Neelkant shrine near Rishikesh,” he said

In May last year, Redcliffe Labs, a medical diagnostic company conducted a test drone flight, bringing a sample from Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

Redcliffe Labs, a medical diagnostic company will start operating two drone flights daily for both routine and specialised tests sample collection from Uttarkashi to Dehradun district from June 10. The test drone flight was conducted by the company on May 19, bringing a sample from Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

On Thursday, the Uttarakhand government approved Drone Policy 2023 to promote drone manufacturing and drone-based services in the state. The state government is also planning to develop drone corridors in the state, especially for remote areas, people familiar with the matter said. For this, the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), a state government undertaking agency under the administrative control of the department of information technology, has sought proposals from drone operating and manufacturing companies.

In April, Uttarakhand Police joined hands with Gurugram-based drone delivery company Skye Air Mobility for UTM software —an unmanned traffic management system for drones – to check unauthorised drone activities in the air.

UTM, which is a cloud-based Aerial traffic management system that connects and communicates with all types of drones (nano, micro, small), provides situational awareness, autonomous navigation, risk assessment, and traffic management to all drone/other aerial mobility operators across the airspace. In December last year, ITDA also announced that drone schools will be opened in all 13 districts of the state