Skye Air, Redcliffe begin drone flights from Uttarkashi to Dehradun

On December 6, Redcliffe Labs, India's fastest-growing diagnostics service provider, and Skye Air Mobility commenced Long Term Drone Pilot Flights from the distant highlands of Uttarkashi to Sahastradhara, Dehradun. The Redcliffe test samples are sent to the Dehradun Redcliffe Labs in 90 minutes through drone delivery from their collecting center in Uttarkashi.

In order to deliver affordable and high-quality diagnostic services to the citizens of Uttarkashi, Redcliffe Labs will be flying daily flights for both routine and specialty test sample collection. Redcliffe Labs is the first diagnostic firm in India to use drones to carry samples, guaranteeing that individuals living in smaller towns or distant locations have access to high-quality, affordable diagnostics.

Drones have an essential and growing role in overcoming obstacles such as poor access to sites. The Drone Pilot Flights from Uttarkashi Skye Hub to Dehradun Skye Hub would cut the delivery time from 6-8 hours by road to 1.5 hours during a landslide.

This will be the first end-to-end delivery of its sort, with linked Skye Hubs at both ends reporting real-time flight data to Skye Air's Central Command Centre in Gurugram. There will also be real-time payload health monitoring.

Commenting on starting the drone pilot flights in Uttarakhand, Dheeraj Jain, Founder, Redcliffe Labs, said "Given Uttarkashi's hilly terrain, the region has limited connectivity that consequently acts as a barrier to accessibility of high-quality diagnostic services. On this front, our goal in undertaking the drone pilot flight from Uttarkashi Skye Hub to Dehradun Skye Hub is to effectively connect every part of the state to a high-quality diagnostic centre. Our team is overjoyed to connect the residents of Uttarkashi with our lab services in Dehradun. The residents will no longer need to travel to the larger cities for their diagnostic needs thanks to easy and reliable access. Significantly, with the help of drone delivery the turnaround time (TAT) for these samples can be maintained within the same day of receiving the sample, which usually in a place like Uttarkashi used to take more than 24 hrs."

"The current form of logistics simply does not work for the healthcare industry in such a terrain geography. The need is to have a solution which is providing a faster, sustainable and scalable supply; drones rightly fit into elevating delivery, the Skye Air way. We are enthused to take our partnership with Redcliffe Labs to the next level of beginning long term flights helping the residents of Uttarkashi to get advantage from such services. Skye Air is working together towards a mission to impact lives at large and with our partners here, we are one step ahead in that journey," said Ankit Kumar, CEO of Skye Air Mobility.

It is noteworthy to mention that the Long-term Drone Pilot Flights are also a part of the Redcliffe and Skye Air tie-up. Over the past few months, they have done 50+ successful trial flights in North India.

"Redcliffe Labs is planning to expand its operations in the country through a series of upcoming initiatives in the next 12 months. By leveraging drone technology, Redcliffe Labs makes diagnostic care accessible to the remotest areas of the country. Using drone technology to collect test samples is one such initiative. The idea is to reach 500M+ Indians by 2027," Jain added.

"This is a remarkable day giving pace to the Drone Delivery ecosystem in India to rise. Our core aim is to enable change, bring the much-needed disruption in the first & last mile logistics industry to move faster and more efficiently. Skye Air is proactively working in the healthcare, quick commerce and ecommerce verticals enabling solutions for faster and cost-effective deliveries," Kumar added.