MUMBAI: Would you like your pizza home-delivered by an unmanned drone? That may not be impossible in future, for a little-known pizza chain in Mumbai last week succeeded in making a test-delivery less than 3km away from its outlet in Lower Parel by using a remote-controlled, GPS-enabled drone .

The ‘customer’ was actually a friend of the chain’s CEO, so it was technically not a sale, as commercial deliveries by drones are not allowed in India. Yet, in a way, it was a first for a product delivery Amazon has only planned. On May 11, the drone took off from the Lower Parel outlet and, flying at a speed of 30km an hour, manoeuvred its way atop the city’s mill district to reach its destination, a high-rise in Worli , in nearly 10 minutes.

The drone dropped the 13-inch plain margherita pizza, weighing half a kilo, on the 21st floor rooftop (where it was collected by the ‘customer’) before taking off again for the return journey. The speed with which the delivery was made thus beat the record for most leading pizza chains, which manually deliver pizzas within 30 minutes.

The drone used in the operation was custom-made, said an official from the pizza chain, adding that an auto engineer friend of his had helped him make the flight possible. The official said the chain had carried out the test-delivery as an experiment because it wants to be ready when regulations in India allow for such methods of product delivery.

Drones are mainly used in India by film-makers for shooting movies. But the regulations are clear that they can fly only at an altitude of between 200 to 400 feet. Drones are also barred from flying over security establishments, and there are technical difficulties like a limited operating radius of 8 km, after which their batteries go dry.

The official from the pizza chain claimed that the company had operated within the ambit of the law and added that they were hopeful of a change in regulations in the next 4-5 years. “While the technology exists, we cannot use it commercially at present,” the official said.

