State gets NE’s first drone delivery hub for better healthcare facilities
Arunachal launched 'Medicine from the Sky' in August this year
Shillong, Dec 5: The state government has unveiled northeast’s First Drone Delivery Hub and Network, in partnership with TechEagle, one of the fastest-growing drone delivery start-up.
The initiative intends to improve universal access to healthcare in the state by delivering vital supplies like drugs, diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood and blood components quickly and safely to different regions of the state using a dedicated Drone Delivery Network.
The project began with the inauguration of Asia’s First Drone Delivery Hub built at the Jengjal Sub-divisional Hospital, on Monday by Health and Family Welfare Minister James Sangma. On the same day, the first official drone flight took off from Jengjal Sub-divisional Hospital (Hub) and delivered medicines to Padeldoba PHC in less than 30 minutes, which would have otherwise taken 2.5 hours by road.
TechEagle’s Vertiplane X3 Drone delivered different healthcare products, including Snake venom-2 pax, Labetalol- 4 pax, Human Albumin-1 pax, Cefotaxime (typhoid dose)- 50 pax on its first flight that was five times faster in comparison to ground transportation.
In August this year, Arunachal Pradesh started ‘Medicine from the Sky’ programme where drones would be used to deliver medicines to remote areas. The first such delivery was from Seppa to Chayang Tajo in East Kameng district.
