Bengaluru, India's IT hub, finally gets 'drone deliveries'

Bengaluru: The IT hub finally gets commercial drone delivery service, nearly three years after three hospitals in the city announced that they will use drones to deliver medicines and diagnostic samples, to bypass maddening Bengaluru traffic.

“The service is already available in Konankunte and Kanakapura Road areas,” said Ankit Kumar, founder and chief executive officer, Skye Air, a Delhi-based hyperlocal drone delivery network.

The residents here can get things delivered to them in a span of seven minutes, he added.

As it happens, despite the buzz in Bengaluru about unmanned air taxis and drones for the last couple of years, the Millennium City, Gurugram, beat the IT hub in launching the ultra-fast drone delivery service first.

The first commercial drone delivery happened in Gurugram Sector 92, covering 7.5 km in just 3-4 mins instead of a usual road route of 15 minutes.

“The response has been pretty good, we have achieved 1 million deliveries in Gurugram in the last one year. This also enabled us to extend the service to Bengaluru,” said Kumar to PTI.

The routes are mostly decided based on the density of the demand as well as infrastructure available, added Kumar.

According to him, they have obtained air space approval in the category of drones and can fly up to 120m above sea level in the approved corridors.

“We are not allowed near military installations, but our present route does not have any. But Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) falls under our area. So, we are expected to coordinate with them about our deliveries,” said Kumar.

As for how it works, Kumar said, they will operate the drones in Skye Air’s proprietary UTM platform, Skye UTM, launched in 2023.

“Legacy ATM (Air Traffic Management) companies deploy solutions that require ATC (Air Traffic Controller) to communicate with the aircraft and the pilot on-board, solving the purpose for manned aviation. However, for UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems), the need is to have a more comprehensive, autonomous and efficient traffic management solution that can communicate with the UAS and suggest measures to make flights safer,” said Kumar.

The drones will fly in a three-dimensional Skye Tunnel — an invisible air corridor at 120 metres above ground level, he added.

The drone is called Skye Ship One, which is designed for high-capacity operations and can carry up to 10 kg per trip.

Kumar said upon reaching its destination, the drone lowers to 20 metres and activates the Skye Winch system, carefully lowering the package to the designated Skye Pod or drop zone, auto-releases the package and returns to its origin using the same route.

Kumar, who believes that in future, the logistics sector will be dominated by drones, estimates that each drone delivery saves 520gm of carbon emissions compared to traditional road-based methods.

Incidentally, a year ago, Scandron, a Bengaluru-based logistics and surveillance drone manufacturer, which manufactures drones that can carry up to 200kg, also announced plans to dispatch critical cargo such as organs or medical equipment using drones.

Kumar said Skye Air’s customers include Bluedart, DTDC, Shiprocket and Ecom Express.

Founded in November 2019, initially, Skye Air concentrated on delivering essential products like medicine, especially in Himachal Pradesh. The company is also planning to venture into food delivery soon, added Kumar.

“And if things go as planned in Bengaluru, we will be soon adding Bannerghatta Road to the areas being served,” said Kumar.