In partnership with MHSSP and the Government of Meghalaya, TechEagle, a drone delivery startup, unveils Drone Delivery Hub and Network. The effort intends to improve universal access to healthcare in the state by delivering vital supplies like drugs, diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood and blood components quickly and safely to different regions of the state using a dedicated Drone Delivery Network.

The commencement of project began with the inauguration of Asia’s First Drone Delivery Hub built at the Jengjal Sub-Divisional Hospital, on 5th Dec 2022 by James P.K.Sangma the Hon’ble Minister, Health and Family Welfare, Meghalaya. 

On the same day, the first official drone flight took off from Jengjal Sub Divisional Hospital(Hub) and delivered medicines to Padeldoba PHC in less than 30 mins which would have otherwise taken 2.5 hours by road. 

TechEagle’s Vertiplane X3 Drone delivered different healthcare products including Snake venom-2 pax, Labetalol- 4 pax, Human Albumin-1 pax, Cefotaxime (typhoid dose)- 50 pax on its first flight which was 5X faster in comparison to ground transportation. 

James P.K.Sangma the Minister, of Health and Family Welfare, Meghalaya while launching the project mentioned, “We are seeing something that is unparalleled in any place of the world. It is a matter of pride for the State of Meghalaya that we would be the first state to institutionalise this initiative and have a system that can be expanded to other areas of the State as well.”

Ram Kumar S(IAS), Project Director, Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project stated “ I’m very happy that we are able to start such an initiative in the State, which aims at providing access to life-saving drugs and other medical essentials to far-flung and hard-to-reach areas of the State.’’ 

He further added “The drone station is meant for regular delivery of medicines, vaccines, blood samples, anti-venoms, etc.”

The significant challenges in last-mile delivery call for an approach to revolutionize the conventional delivery system. With Asia’s First Drone Delivery Network, the solution provided by TechEagle overcomes the problem of lack of visibility, high delivery costs, outdated technology and inaccessibility through roads and railway networks.

Delighted with the announcement, Vikram Singh Meena, CEO & Founder of TechEagle said, “Transforming the logistics and healthcare supply chain is at the heart of TechEagle’s vision and this launch of MDDN(Meghalaya Drone Delivery Network) is the first big step forward in the direction of achieving the goal of universal access to healthcare and logistics across the world. We are thankful to the Govt of Meghalaya & MHSSP to provide us with this opportunity to create a larger impact on a grass root level.” 

“MDDN (Meghalaya Drone Delivery Network) & Hub in Phase 1 is a combination of 1 central Hub and 25 spokes(supply chain nodes) in a radius of 50 km where The Drone Hub at Jengal Hospital shall act as the centre point. TechEagle’s Made in India Drones are capable of vertical take-off and landing from small areas which enable both forward and reverse logistics of healthcare products in the network. MDDN would bring universal access to healthcare for 2.7 million people of Meghalaya.” Vikram Singh further added

Prior to this in September 2021, TechEagle successfully conducted India’s First Medicine Delivery via a Hybrid e-VTOL drone in Meghalaya where its Hybrid e-VTOL Drone Aquila X2 delivered the lifesaving drugs successfully from Nongstoin District Hospital to Maweit PHC, situated 25 km apart from each other in less than 25 minutes.