Garuda Aerospace, a Chennai-based start-up that designs, builds and customises unmanned aerial vehicles or drones for various applications, is deploying three drones and four pilots to support the National Disaster Response Force’s (NDRF) relief and rescue operations at Uttarakhand’s Chamoli glacier disaster site, a top official told BusinessLine .

The start-up is deploying three different types of drones to support NDRF. A video surveillance drone to assess the extent of damage caused and relaying real-time information to ground forces; a stringing drone which has the ability to connect rescue lines from one end to the other to ship men and material; and a delivery drone used during the pandemic which can move food and other emergency supplies — a less expensive and more sustainable option than helicopters.

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“Our team comprising three drones and four pilots are already in Dehradun and will be airlifted by the NDRF to Joshimath today to commence our operations. We are the first drone start-up summoned by NDRF to serve in this national disaster,” said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder of Garuda Aerospace.

The start-up, which is supported by Agnii Mission and Invest India, had deployed its Garuda drones extensively across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic and to ward off locust attacks. Its fleet of CK100 (CoronaKiller100) drones were deployed to spray disinfectants to sanitise public places in 26 cities last year, including hospitals, five-star hotels, markets, government offices and roads, in order to stop the community spread of coronavirus. Its drones were also deployed to spray pesticides in anti-locust operations in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The company’s Drones as a Service (DaaS) offering caters to diverse customer needs, including security, sanitising, delivery, reconnaissance and surveillance, agricultural survey, pesticide spraying, mapping, wildlife monitoring, and crowd monitoring, among others.

With a team size of 150 employees and offices in 26 cities across the country, Garuda Aerospace has 50 completed projects under its belt for 47 clients. Focused on ‘Make in India’, the start-up imports high-quality parts such as flight controllers, motors, propellers and batteries from various manufacturers and assembles them in India.

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