HYDERABAD: On Friday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that it has given conditional permission to the Telangana government to use drones for vaccine delivery.
This is the first time any state government has sought to deliver vaccines using drones.
In a tweet, the Ministry said, "MoCA gives conditional exemption from Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021 to Govt of Telangana for conducting experimental delivery of vaccines using drones within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) range."
As per the Ministry, Telangana had sought exemption from UAS Rules, 2021 for the delivery of vaccines through drones on March 9. The approval was given by DGCA on April 26. It is likely that the permission was sought keeping in mind the mammoth task of vaccinating 1 crore individuals aged 45 years and above with COVID-19 vaccines.
As per the permission accorded, this exemption to use drones within visual range has been given for a period of one year.
It, however, remains to be seen if the Telangana government will put this into operation in light of the fact that only 3 lakh doses are presently available in the state and the supply from the Centre has been erratic.
The state has also witnessed low vaccination rates due to hesitancy and it only picked up in the last two weeks after the government mandated all aged about 45 years from various government departments to take the vaccine.
At present, about 45 lakh individuals have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Telangana.