For the first in India, a drone successfully delivered medicines to a remote primary health centre in the West Khasi Hils district of Meghalaya on November 26, 2021, chief minister Conrad Sangma informed.

The medicines were delivered from Nongstoin District Hospital to Maweit PHC- 25 kilometres away from the district headquarter.

"We all know what great technology can do but to be able to use it for the benefit of the citizens of the state, something which is so meaningful to the people," Sangma said while congratulation the team involved with the project.

TechEagle – a Gurugram based DeepTech start-up drone building Drone logistic Airline has partnered with the Meghalaya government and Smart Village Movement (SVM) to carry out India's first hybrid e-VTOL Drone delivery of lifesaving medicines.

The collaboration is aimed at transforming the healthcare supply chain for the hard-to-reach population.

On November 26, a doctor at Nongstoin district hospital gave the medicine box to the TechEagle team to load inside the drone.  

Upon successfully loading the medicine into the drone bay, TechEagle's e-VTOL Drone AquilaX2 took off from Nongstoin District Hospital vertically like a helicopter. It converted automatically into fixed-wing (like passenger aircraft) mode upon reaching the mission height. Drone cruised a complete aerial distance of 25km at 90kmph speed to reach Maweit PHC.

As soon as it reached the landing point at Maweit PHC, the drone converted itself back to rotary-wing mode to land vertically like a helicopter.

TechEagle team unloaded the package and handed over the medicine box to the doctor at Maweit PHC. Drones have the potential to improve the lives of 18,50,000 citizens of Meghalaya.

The company's state-of-the-art drone delivery technology ensures consistent, safe and reliable distribution of lifesaving drugs (medicines, vaccines, blood and other medical essentials) in several parts of the state with the reverse logistics of samples for quick diagnosis.

"Today, we are proud of the fact that TechEagle's made in India Hybrid e-VTOL is solving grassroots problems faced by citizens living in remote areas. We have reduced delivery time from 4 hoursto 25 minutes. e-VTOL drone technology is going to leave a huge impact to enable better healthcare in the remotest parts of the World," said founder & CEO of TechEagle Vikram Sing Meena.

"The use of drone-based deliveries in healthcare is a promising means to augment supply chain management and support last-mile access," said Project Lead - Healthcare at Smart Village Movement, Berkely Haas, Tulenam Laloo.

"Meghalaya and other North-Eastern states would immensely benefit from its application, considering the unique terrain. The use case to be studied through TechEagle's trial at West Khasi Hills District shall be something that we shall look forward to," Laloo added.