Logistics drone manufacturer Scandron, on Wednesday, signed a strategic partnership with CriticaLog India, a technology-driven logistics company to tap the business-to-business (B2B) and hub-to-hub technology market in the country.
Scandron is investing Rs 100 crore initially. The collaboration aspires to garner business worth Rs 500-600 crore in the next two years and will cover hub-to-hub drone deliveries across 160 cities pan-India starting with Bengaluru, Arjun Naik, Chief Executive Officer, Scandron Pvt Ltd told DH. The next destinations are two cities in the North and two others in the North East. Naik didn’t name them.
The partnership will look at warehouse-to-warehouse delivery of time-sensitive, critical, and high-value goods including product servers, electronic components, high-value cash items, medical equipment, automotive components etc.
“We are excited to work together to ensure timely and efficient delivery of critical shipments across verticals such as healthcare, automotive, ITes, etc,” said Sujoy Guha, Managing Director and CEO of CriticaLog India Pvt Ltd.
The company will begin operations with two drones - Cargomax 500 with a payload capacity of 5 kg, flight range of over 30 Kms and endurance of about an hour. The second drone, Cargomax 2000 has a payload capacity of 20 Kgs, a flight range of 20 Kms and endurance of about an hour. The two drones are fully autonomous and are equipped with cargo boxes. Standard-sized cargo boxes can also be attached to the drones for the purpose of delivery, Naik explained.
The company is currently in the process of getting Directorate of General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) certification on its drones and is expected to start operations in the next three months.
“We are doing route probing, in which we do the routes at a slower pace. We will map the routes out, see potential obstacles and avoid highly congested areas on the ground so they (drones) have a pattern that they follow. Once that (route) has been mapped out, you work with the authorities to establish that route and then you start the operations,” Naik said.
The regulatory aspect is very well laid out and there is a structure in place which the players can work with, Naik remarked. “We're working with the government for that so it should come through in a couple of weeks,” he added.
This is the first time Scandron Drones will operate cargo drones at this scale. Other drones that the company manufactures and operates include defence, agriculture and customised drones as well as anti-drone systems. It also provides drone-based inspection solutions across various industries.