Optiemus Unmanned Systems (OUS), a subsidiary of Optiemus Infracom Limited on Thursday said it will invest around ₹140 crore to deploy 5,000 drones in agricultural and mapping category over the next one year.
Through this project, it is also targeting a service revenue of around ₹600-900 crore by the end of calendar year 2025, a top official at the company said, adding that the prices of the drones starts at around ₹2.50 lakh each.
“The potential for this business is huge given the benefits it serves. We are set to leverage our expertise in drone technology to offer a cost-effective and efficient solution for agricultural and defence needs. We will deploy this agricultural drones from Rabi season this year, followed by Kharif season next year, to attract more farmers,” Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Optiemus Infracom Limited, told businessline on the sidelines of the launch here.
OUS endeavours these drones to be used in precision farming and spraying at affordable prices. The pricing strategy will enable mass level deployment and adoption of drones, across India, he said adding that the initiative is expected to help the farmers improve their farmland productivity and yield while reducing their input costs which will lead to an increase in their incomes.
Drone as a service
“We will be adopting a ‘Drone as a Service’ strategy to reach out to target markets and will be training around 6,000 pilots to manage a fleet of 5,000 drones by the end of 2025. We have decided to march on a unique business model for our drone business and this is based on our ground-level research, which called out issues like lack of know-how on operating drones, scarcity of spare parts, etc,” Gupta said.
After-sales service and support will be another key focus of the company to ensure that operations run smoothly. To support this, OUS will have a set of drones and drone components on standby and also a team with the relevant technical and operational qualifications, he said.
The company has a minimum of 65 per cent indigenisation for its drones right now, and plans to increase this up to 75 per cent by the end of this financial year, Gupta said adding that OUS has already successfully localised various components including power distribution board, anti-spark switch, flight controller, airframe, and motor.