Northeast’s First Drone Delivery Hub and Network was launched by the Meghalaya government in partnership with drone delivery start-up TechEagle . TechEagle is one of the fastest-growing drone delivery startups.
According to Ramkumar S, Director of the Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project, the effort intends to improve access to healthcare in the state to deliver essential medical supplies like drugs, diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood and blood components in the remote, mountainous and far-flung areas in less time using a dedicated drone delivery network.
As per Economic times, Meghalaya will begin utilising larger drones from March 2023 to deliver up to 25 kg of medicines, anti-snake venom vials and other healthcare necessities in the remote, mountainous and far-flung areas to save time and costs.
The project was started with the launch of Asia’s First drone delivery Hub built at the Jengjal Sub-Divisional Hospital in West Garo Hills district on Monday afternoon by the state’s Health and Family on Monday by Minister James Sangma .
The first official drone flight took off from the Jengjal Sub Divisional Hospital and delivered medicines to Padeldoba primary health centre in less than 30 minutes which would have otherwise taken 2.5 hours by road.
“We are seeing something that is unparalleled in any place of the world. It is a matter of pride for the State of Meghalaya that we would be the first state to institutionalize this initiative and have a system that can be expanded to other areas of the State as well,” minister Sangma said.
Different healthcare products have been delivered by TechEagle’s Vertiplane X3 Drone including Snake venom-2 pax, Labetalol- 4 pax, Human Albumin-1 pax, Cefotaxime (typhoid dose) 50 pax in its first flight which was 5X faster in comparison to ground transportation.
With the implementation of northeast’s first drone delivery network, the solution provided by TechEagle overcomes the problem of lack of visibility, high delivery costs, outdated technology and inaccessibility through roads and railway networks.
According to Vikram Singh, CEO & Founder of TechEagle, said, “Transforming the logistics and healthcare supply chain is at the heart of TechEagle’s vision and this initiative is a first big step forward in the direction of achieving the goal of universal access to healthcare and logistics across the world. We are thankful to the Govt of Meghalaya & MHSSP to provide us this opportunity to create a larger impact on grass root level.”
Jengjal which is located 32 km from West Garo Hills district headquarters Tura is Meghalaya’s largest urban centre after capital Shillong. Jengjal was made as a planned drone station for delivery of medicines and healthcare essentials to remote and rural healthcare facilities within a radius of 50 km.
The station was established almost a year after a pilot project to deliver drugs by drones was undertaken successfully from a civil hospital to two primary health centres in West Khasi Hills district in November 2021.
