Months after the proposed beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operation of the Telangana government's 'Medicine from Sky' Project seemingly got caught in limbo due to lack of permissions, the new and regulation-relaxed Drone Rules 2021 has finally given a fillip to the project. The initiative is now set for a re-launch, this time with BVLOS operations, on September 11, said Telangana's Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao. The Telangana government in a press release said that the project has received the final regulatory nod from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to conduct the operations. "Ahead of the launch, three of the eight selected consortia namely Bluedart Med Express Consortium (Skye Air), Hepicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), and CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations) have already reached Vikarabad and have started testing of their drones via VLOS and BVLOS flights," the release said. The launch shall be conducted at the Police Parade Ground near the SP Office of Vikarabad District. It is important to note that in May this year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation granted the Telangana government exemption from the now-replaced Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules 2021 and granted permission for conducting beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations. Based on the exemption, it was decided that trials will be held in June. However, it turned out that the government could not proceed with the drone trials because it had not received an additional exemption from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Instead, the government…
