Blue Dart forms team to run drone delivery of vaccines, medicines

Hyderabad Logistics service provider Blue Dart formed Blue Dart Med-Express Consortium with a mission of revolutionising the delivery of vaccines and emergency medical supplies to the remotest parts of India with drones. The consortium is part of the 'Medicine from the Sky' project in collaboration with the Government of Telangana, World Economic Forum, Niti Aayog and Healthnet Global.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has granted the project with necessary exemptions and rights to fly drone flights on an experimental basis in Telangana. The aim is to assess an alternate logistics route in providing safe, accurate and reliable pickup and delivery of healthcare items such as medicines, covid-19 vaccines, units of blood, diagnostic specimens and other lifesaving equipment.

Blue Dart Med-Express Drone flights will deploy an immersive delivery model to optimise the current healthcare logistics within Telangana. The model will enable deliveries from district medical stores and blood banks to Primary Health Centers (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), Blood Storage Units and further from PHCs/CHCs to Central Diagnostic laboratories.

Balfour Manuel, Managing Director of Blue Dart says: "It's been over a year and our battle against Covid-19 continues to unfold new challenges that need solutions in real-time. The pandemic has taught each one of us the importance of logistics and the need for a tech-led supply chain infrastructure. The current situation calls for a much deeper penetration of vaccines."

The consortium aims at enabling safer, efficient and cost-effective drone delivery flights. Ketan Kulkarni, CMO and Head – Business Development of Blue Dart says: "With efficient systems in place, it can help reduce the current logistics cost, making the healthcare logistics faster and efficient. We are delighted to be granted the rights to commence operations."

Rama Devi Lanka, Director of Emerging Technologies and Officer on Special Duty (OSD), ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana, said that the project would generate real and actionable insights to drive future adoption policies and integration with the existing healthcare supply chain. With covid-19 wrecking existing supply chains, adopting such disruptive technologies is the need of the hour.