New Delhi: In a first, the department of posts used drones as part of a pilot project in Gujarat's Kutch district to deliver mail covering a distance of 46 km in 25 minutes. The parcel took 25 minutes to reach the destination Ner village in Bhachau taluka of Kutch district, which is 46 km from the originating point at Habay village in Bhuj taluka. The mail was sent by the drone by the postal department under the guidance of the Union ministry of communications, as per the release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in Ahmedabad, reported news agency PTI.
"With the success of this pilot project, it will now be possible to make postal deliveries by drone in future," it said.
"Keeping pace with modern technology, the Indian Postal Department has successfully tested for the first time in the country's postal history a pilot project to deliver mail with the help of drone technology in Kutch district of Gujarat," the PIB said.
It was a medical parcel, as per the information shared on Twitter by the Union minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan.
The pilot project also studied the cost of delivery by drones and the geographical location between the two centres including the coordination among staff during the delivery process besides possible roadblocks, the release said. If the experiment is commercially successful, the postal parcel delivery services will be faster, it added.
In a tweet on Saturday Chauhan said, "As the country celebrated the #DroneMahotsav2022, the Department of Posts successfully conducted a pilot test for delivery of parcels through drones in Kutch, Gujarat. The Drone successfully delivered the medicine parcel covering an aerial distance of 46 Km in 30 mins."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week inaugurated the 'Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022,' the country's biggest drone festival, where he said the use of drones will rise in sectors such as agriculture, sports, defence, and disaster management.