Tamil Nadu government is doing pilot studies on spraying
disinfectant with drones.
With the states across India pulling out all stops in the
country's battle against coronavirus, a Chennai-based drone company to is
using its technological innovations to tackle the scourge in Chhattisgarh
capital Raipur and elsewhere.
"Our
drones will spray disinfectant on areas specified by the Chhattisgarh
government, usually hospital areas, government offices, and buildings,"
Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Managing Director of city-based Garuda Aerospace, told
IANS.
Jayaprakash,
29, has created quite a splash in the international swimming pools to win
medals for India.
In his home
state Tamil Nadu, he says, the government is doing pilot studies on spraying
disinfectant with Garuda's drones on the Rajiv Gandhi Government General
Hospital, as also Ripon Building that houses the Greater Chennai Corporation,
and others.
The drone
the manufacturer has bagged orders from some private hospitals in Chennai for
disinfecting their buildings as well, he added.
The
the challenge before him is to reach Raipur with his drones and pilots amid the
national lockdown.
"We
will spray disinfectant over 770 acres initially. We will send two drones and
two pilots by road initially. We can finish the spraying task in two
days," Jayaprakash said.
"The
the total order is of Rs.2.3 crore for sanitizer spray across 180 sq km," he
added.
Interestingly,
Jayaprakash was born with a lung ailment and will now be using drones to kill a
a virus that damages the human lungs.
According
to him, Garuda Aerospace is getting inquiries from various state governments
for disinfecting public places by using drones.
On the
business model, he said: "It will be a sort of Drones as a Service (DAAS).
We will provide our drones and pilots to operate them. The customer has to
provide the disinfectant."
He pointed
out that a drone could cover 20 km distance compared to a human's 4-5 km within
specific time and that a fleet of 300 drones can cover 6,000 km linear distance
in a day.
"During
a pandemic, speed of disinfecting areas is important. Further, it is safe as
health workers could be exposed to health risks while drones and their pilots
are not. The speed, productivity, and precision of drones are better than human
beings," he added.
Jayaprakash
said that each drone can spray 40 liters of disinfectant every day if deployed
for 12 hours. The drones can fly up to a height of 400 ft and carry out
spraying operations on even on tall buildings.
According
to him, Garuda has manufactured and serviced drones for several governments
departments in Tamil Nadu, like forests, electricity, police, mining,
agriculture, Indian Coast Guard and others.
As the
the company had used drones to spray pesticides on farmland, it occurred to him to
use them to spray disinfectants also, he said.
Queried
about the industry size in India, Jayaprakash said it is worth about $100
million and 15-20 organized players with all statutory licenses.
According
to him, officially there are about 16,000 drones in India.
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