Drone Delivery in India: ANRA Hits 100 Hour Milestone

Drone delivery in India moves forward, as ANRA hits 100 hour delivery milestone.

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

ANRA Technologies, an industry leader in integrated airspace, mission management, and delivery systems for unmanned aircrafts, has reached a 100-flight hour milestone while carrying out Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) delivery operations in India. ANRA led their consortia on a project awarded by the Directorate General of Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA).  ANRA made history alongside partner Swiggy, India’s largest online food ordering and delivery platform, by launching the first end-to-end BVLOS drone delivery trials as part of this project last June. One of the requirements was to fly 100 hours to collect data and information to inform the Indian regulatory process as government stakeholders prepare the next set of drone rules for BVLOS operations.

ANRA’s team flew 90 percent of the total flight hours alongside partner BetterDrones, which flew the remaining flight hours. The flight team, based at the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar and the Etah district, conducted flights consisting of multirotor drones operating on ANRA’s SmartSkies CTR and SmartSkies DELIVERY software platforms. Having flown over 350 sorties, the project concluded, transiting 1,100 kilometers of incident-free operations in spite of numerous challenges ranging from weather conditions to COVID quarantines.

As the only UAS technology provider approved by the Government of India to lead two consortia as part of this pioneering initiative ANRA led one consortium consisting of partners Swiggy, Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT-R), and BetterDrones, and a second including IIT-R, which focussed on medical deliveries. With this experience, ANRA is able to support the World Economic Forum’s Medicines from the Sky project in India, operating drones for cases such as vaccine delivery.

The project, which took months of planning, risk assessments, air traffic control integration, training, equipment preparation, and coordination, will culminate in a final report to the government.

The BVLOS project in India is ongoing as the government seeks to expedite its policies and prepare the local industry for a substantial push into the global drone services segment. ANRA recently closed a multi-million dollar funding round led by a consortium of global investors, which will accelerate development and continued expansion of its software portfolio and allow for growth of its international team.

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.