Young engineers’ quest to use UAVs for development
After the magnitude 7.6 earthquake rattled Nepal on April 25, 2015, security personnel and locals spent weeks in rescuing the injured. The rescue work could not gather pace because they did not have a birdseye view of far-flung areas.
Engineer Darpan Pudasaini, who was developing robots to meet various practical needs, was aware that drones could make the rescue works quicker. “I felt helpless because I did not have the equipment, nor the team to use my knowledge,” he says.
However, the incident triggered a business idea in Pudasaini to establish DroNepal, one of the country’s pioneering drone companies with a mission to promote the use of drones in development works, including post-disaster management.
Bid To Correct Flawed Development
Pudasaini says his company was born out of Engineering Adda, a loose network of robotics he co-founded with classmate Milan Karki in 2013. Students of Pokhara University’s Nepal Engineering College, Pudasaini and Karki had convinced some government and nongovernment agencies as well as UN bodies to use robots in their day-to-day functioning.
“While working for Engineering Adda, we developed a keen interest in drones as its use would not be restricted to a single field. Consequently, our team acquired knowledge and skills to build drones on our own,” Pudasaini shares his early plan, “But, we soon realised that we could not survive on building these machines as its users are few in the country. Therefore, we changed our focus to its diverse use.”
In the first two years of its life, DroNepal has concentrated its efforts on using drones for surveys for infrastructure development projects. Pudasaini claims many development projects of the country are flawed because surveys which guide the construction works are inaccurate.
“Our country’s terrain is quite rough, and it hinders accurate surveys,” he clarifies, “Inaccurate surveys lead to construction errors. We can correct such errors by using drones in engineering survey works.”
Motivating Local Governments To Go High-Tech
After the completing of local level elections across the country in 2017, the company has been pushing local governments to use drones in development planning and implementation.
Because local governments are at the forefront of development works, the company believes that their engagement in the use of modern technologies can bring a significant change in Nepal’s development landscape.
Therefore, it has been offering voluntary service to various local agencies. “We approached Gokarneshwar Municipality in Kathmandu with an offer of doing the whole urban planning for free. Once they agreed, Biratnagar Metropolitan City in Morang district contacted us to work with them,” a happy Pudasaini shares, “We are doing a small project in Waling of Syangja district as well.”
