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From e-commerce deliveries to traffic management, Gurugram takes the aerial route
Known for its glitzy offices and sprawling shopping malls, Gurugram became the first city in Haryana, and perhaps in the country, to have e-commerce products delivered through drones when Skye Air delivered a pair of spectacles and gulab jamun at Fresco last September
A drone landing outside a housing society in Gurugram to deliver goods.
| Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
Every time Mudit Bansal spots a drone appear on the horizon, navigating its way through high-rises, heading towards his multi-storey apartment complex, Fresco, to make a delivery, the market strategist at a multinational IT company experiences a “child-like” zest.
“If I ever happen to see a drone up there, I stop for a few seconds to behold the spectacle. It is an amazing technology,” said Mr. Bansal, visibly excited over just having received a pack of snacks, some frozen food and a bottle of coke delivered by air.
Inside posh Nirvana Country township in Sector 50, Fresco is the first apartment complex in Gurugram to receive deliveries through air – ranging from milk and fresh vegetables in the early hours to groceries, food items and other products all through the day. The number has now gone up to over half a dozen on Golf Course, Golf Course Extension and Sohna Road, with 60 new addresses, mostly along the now-open Dwarka Expressway, soon to be added to this growing list.
Known for its glitzy offices and sprawling shopping malls, Gurugram became the first city in Haryana, and perhaps in the country, to have e-commerce products delivered through drones when Skye Air, a drone delivery tech firm, delivered a pair of spectacles and gulab jamun at Fresco last September.
But it was almost two years before this delivery in Gurugram that the long and tumultuous journey for drone deliveries in the country started on September 11, 2021, when a drone flew for over 3 km to deliver medicines in Telangana’s Vikarabad, claimed Skye Air co-founder and CEO Ankit Kumar.
This short flight marked a turning point in the history of the country’s aviation journey for deliveries through drones. “In August 2021, a new policy came into effect which removed all bottlenecks. So taking permissions, approvals, compliances and multiple other things were super-eased,” he said.
Much before the first e-commerce delivery in Gurugram, the company had started with commercial operations for delivery through drones in the healthcare sector with the governments of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and a few more States.
Maze of obstacles
The drone deliveries in an ever-expanding city like Gurugram, however, had far more challenges such as high population density and the plethora of obstacles in the form of under-construction buildings, power transmission lines, telecom towers and high-rises. Then there was the task of identifying the most effective and financially viable navigation technology. “We could not use the radio frequency technique used in hilly areas because of possible frequent disconnections and using the LiDAR-based investigation system would have escalated the cost by one-fourth to ₹1.5-2 lakh per drone. So we developed ‘Sky Tunnel’, a 10-metre-wide air corridor from the point of take-off to landing location free from all fixed obstacles,” Mr. Kumar said, adding that presently 10 companies deliver their products through them.
Gurugram is also the first city in Haryana where the police use drones for traffic management.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The delivery via road from the company’s warehouse in Sector 71 to this housing society takes around 20 minutes, but it is completed in less than half the time with a drone.
The products ordered are winched inside specially designed portable cabins, “Skye Pods”, connected to the drones. As soon as the drone reaches above the Skye Pod, the cabin opens from the top to accept the delivery. The delivery executive, or “Skye Walker”, unlocks the pod with a one-time password (OTP) to prevent unauthorised access, collects the package and delivers it at the customer’s doorstep.
Each Skye Pod caters to around a thousand customers and there are seven such pods across Gurugram, including at Scottish Mall, Spaze ITECH Park and Tulip Greens along the Sohna Road.
At the present scale of operations with 100-120 flights per day, the deliveries through drones in Gurugram are 10-15% more expensive, but with the increase in deliveries, it is expected to be 30% cheaper than deliveries via roads. However, drone deliveries are not a 365-day solution, thanks to monsoons and frequent restrictions on flying of drones during VIP movements, and on national festivals. The company makes an alternative arrangement for deliveries through roads for almost two months every year.
Raising security concerns, a drone on a routine flight to Fresco crashed into the facade of a two-storey house in South City-II damaging a dish antenna, a window pane and some flower pots. However, no one was injured in the freak incident. Fresco Resident Welfare Association president Nilesh Tandon said drone deliveries are a wonderful experience, but some neighbouring societies had initially expressed privacy and security concerns. Claiming that it was “safe”, Mr. Kumar said the drones flying in Gurugram are hexacopters with six motors and even if one motor was damaged, the other five would help it land.
From traffic to tiger
Gurugram is also the first city in Haryana where the police use drones for traffic management. In December last, Gurugram Police used a drone on the National Highway-48 for the first time to identify the vehicles violating the lane driving rules and issued around 50 challans.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic Headquarters) Vikash Kumar, supervising a drone-based drive against traffic rule violations on Delhi-Jaipur Highway near Rampura flyover in July, told The Hindu that similar drives were carried out daily targeting lane driving violations on national highways. “We fly drones around 1-2 km away from where we are stationed to identify the violators and issue challans,” said Mr. Kumar. He added that Gurugram Traffic Police had 20 operators and one drone, but there were plans to induct more unmanned aerial vehicles soon.
Other departments, including the forest and mining, in Gurugram have come forward to adopt the technology, especially for better monitoring, checking violations and conducting surveys. Gurugram Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) Rajesh Chahal recalled how his team ended up using a drone to locate a tiger which had strayed from Sariska National Park in Rajasthan to Rewari last November.
“The feline was moving around taking advantage of the mustard farms and could not be located for days. Finally, along with the Rajasthan team, we used a drone to track its movements,” said Mr. Chahal. He added that the department used drones for planting seeds in Aravalis, and checking encroachment on forest land.
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