Chungnam Deepens Pilot Operation of 'Drone Delivery' in Island Villages and Mountainous Remote Areas

Estimated Market Size of Drone Delivery in Major Countries Worldwide. The data is unrelated to the article. Source=Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is one step closer to commercializing ‘drone delivery’ after an advanced pilot operation phase, which transports goods to island villages and remote mountainous areas within the province.

On the 23rd, the province announced that it has been selected for the third consecutive year as a leading local government to carry out the ‘regionally focused address-based drone delivery pilot operation’ organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

As a result of the selection, the province will receive a budget of 150 million KRW from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to conduct research related to drone delivery.

The project focuses on using drones to deliver mail to island areas with poor transportation access or to provide emergency relief supplies to mountainous villages isolated by disasters such as heavy snow or earthquakes.

For example, the province plans to conduct test flights from drone hubs established on islands and in mountainous areas adjacent to Taean-gun, Boryeong-si, Seosan-si, and Dangjin-si to 50 drone delivery points.

Additionally, it will verify operational manuals and study ways to minimize drone delivery costs.

Previously, the province was selected for this project over the past two years and received a total of 230 million KRW in special grants from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Based on this, it confirmed the potential to drastically reduce delivery times by using drones to transport various goods to islands and mountainous areas.

For instance, delivering approximately 10 kg of medicine by drone from Daemanho in Dangjin to Daenanji-do and Sonanji-do islands and returning takes about 20 minutes. Considering that the same trip by boat takes about 2 hours, this shortens the time by approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.

A provincial official said, “Drone delivery is a useful project that prioritizes providing universal delivery services to residents who have been relatively neglected in the postal and logistics markets,” adding, “The province will continue to develop new tasks to promote land administration for its residents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.