War on Covid-19: Garuda Aerospace to use drones for disinfecting 26 cities

Firm seeks to ramp up manufacturing capacity as it also receives interest from Spain, Brazil and US for 1,500 drones

Garuda Aerospace, a drone start-up from Chennai, is launching an aggregator service model across 26 cities in the country, under which it would provide a host of, including spraying disinfectants to fight Covid-19. The company has already tied up with various smart cities and state governments to offer Covid-19 sanitisation services the past few weeks. It has also seen interest from Spain, Brazil and the US for supply of 1,500 drones, for which it would need to expand its manufacturing capacity.

The firm is launching an app 'Garuda', a first-of-its-kind drone aggregator service in India, with around 4,000 drones and 6,500 pilots across the country. The aim is to offer various drone-related services, including spraying disinfectants, in private properties and educational institutions. 

It has already received contracts worth Rs 5 crore worth from private firms for spraying disinifactants in the past few weeks including some long-term deals for sanitisation and expects the orders to go up to Rs 25-30 crore in another four weeks. The aggregator app is being launched on Monday and services will start from Wednesday.

The drones can be booked through the app for weddings and other events, agricultural purposes, mapping for infrastructure development, among others. It has tied up with small firms and individuals who have drones, and would direct the orders to them based on online bookings. Garuda is also in talks with online food delivery firms and e-commerce companies to start drone delivery service in the form of an application and is awaiting regulations from the government for such supplies.

"We want to be the Uber of drones," said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, managing director, Garuda Aerospace, a start-up launched in 2015. He says his firm is a pioneer in the Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) model. The company has some 300 drones and 450 pilots. Its manufacturing unit in Chennai has so far manufactured around 350 drones, including those sold to the Tamil Nadu government.

The company has seen demand going up 300 per cent after the Covid-19 started spreading. Earlier the industry size would have been $200-250 million, mostly based on government and infrastructure industry orders. The decline in Chinese imports and the qualilty offered by Indian players have increased the demand for the indigenous drones. While Garuda Aerospace was earlier supplying to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for critical power infrastructure projects and the State Forest department to track and distract wild animals from entering human habitats, it currently has requests from 12 States including Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Puducherry, for sanitisation, monitoring of crowds and use of loudspeaker to disseminate official communication. Each drone can cover 20 km and carry up to 20 litres. The company is also using drones fitted with loudspeakers to help police make public announcements to monitor Section 144.

The drone, named Corona Killer 100 (CK100), offer advantages such as ability to cover 20 km as against a human capacity of 4-5 km, working 12 hours continuosly compared to the human effort of 6-8 hours a day, spraying tall buildings (it can achieve an altitude if 150 meters), ensuring safety of health and sanitisation workers. CK100 drones are equipped with thermal-sensing to help officials manage crowds and identify people with elevated body temperatures which could indicate they have the virus. It can broadcast information to an area largerr than that covered by traditional loudspeakers, and can also patrol areas and monitor traffic and crowds.

"We also have received orders from countries like Spain, Brazil and US, for around 1,500 drones. So that takes the number to 2,000 drones including from India, but our capacity is 100 drones a month, which means it would take at least 20 months to delivery. So for the overseas interests, we have said that we will serve based on our ability to expand operations amid the lockdown," Jayaprakash added. The company is in talks with investors to raise about $15 million.

The Tamil Nadu government started spraying disinfectants using drones in government hospitals on March 23. It has won orders from Varanasi Smart City, from the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use drones to combat the Coronarirus Spread, by sanitising highrise buildings, public places, hospitals and government offices.