Gurugram-based drone company, TechEagle Innovations has partnered with Ethiopian e-commerce company Addis Mercato to start Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone deliveries of healthcare and other essential items in Ethiopia, reports a company press release.
Vikram Singh Meena, co-founder and CEO of TechEagle, told medianama.com, “We are gaining the necessary regulatory approval in Ethiopia and the partnership is aiming to begin this operation in early 2021.” The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s airline regulator, has recently finalised a draft of the country’s first drone policy.
To have a BVLOS operation, a working and successful Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) operation is required. This system overseers the drone’s position in a given airspace and helps avoid collisions with other craft. Meena, said, “There is a robust UTM platform in place”, but did not offer any company name behind it.
The TechEagle drones to be used to for the delivery system are capable of vertical take-off and landing, precision navigation, detect and avoid, visual identification and smart flight path planning with real-time redundant network connection as well as and scheduling capabilities.
TechEagle said in a company statement, “This solution will save human lives with faster delivery response times to emergencies (eg. blood components, vaccine, anti-venom, medical samples etc.).” And Meena added, “While building the ecosystem, we believe in empowering the local youth with skill development, training and by creating new job opportunities for them,”
Meanwhile, TechEagle is one of a 20 consortia participating in India’s BVLOS enterprise. The company has received the aviation regulator, DGCA’s, approval to experiment with drone deliveries. The company is part of a consortium called ClearSky, which also includes telecom operator Vodafone and food delivery company Zomato, among others.
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(News Source: https://www.medianama.com)