Will food delivery via flying drones could soon become a reality in India?

Are you excited to know this then answer is YES food delivery via flying drones could soon become a reality in India.

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given a nod to food startups like Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo to start testing beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for deliveries.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had earlier exempted usage of drones for non-commercial purposes but has approved that it can be flown with restrictions. However, it cannot be flown in and around “No-Fly Zones”.

India’s civil aviation regulator has given the go-ahead a little over a year after the country announced plans to allow experimental long-range drone flights before framing a policy for the sector.

While the company initially planned to begin tests much sooner, the Covid-19 virus outbreak induced lockdown pushed back its plans, Kandasamy said.

The tests, which will see the unmanned vehicles either carry payloads or survey vast swathes of land, are likely to begin in the first week of July.

Zomato conducted test delivery using drones in June 2019, the drone in the test covered a distance of 5 kilometres in about 10minutes. The highest speed was 80kmph and the drone carried a weight of 5kgs. “Food delivery by drones is no longer just a pipe dream. It’s almost here," the Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal said back then.

This approval came at the time when the world is talking about the contactless deliveries in the wake of COVID-19. “Drone delivery” has been the talk of the town for quite some time in food and other product delivery companies.

Google and Amazon also invested in drone-based startups around the world and started getting permission from governments. Google is the first company to receive permission for drone delivery in Australia.