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Feb 4 The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has requested several ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), to encourage various entities under their administrative control to promote the use of drones.
According to a written response by the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, VK Singh, in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy such as agriculture, medicine delivery, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence and law enforcement, among others.
An illustrative list drawn up by the ministry says drone applications under different ministries include activities such as monitoring and inspection, automatic surveying and mapping, stockpile assessment and management, and haulage road optimisation in the case of the Ministry of Mining.
Similarly, for the Ministry of Home Affairs, an illustrative list of applications include surveillance, situational analysis, public announcements and evidence gathering for security of sensitive installations, raids and counter-terror operations, crowd management, crime control and VVIP security, among others.
According to the Drone Rules, 2021, operation of drones in zones marked red and yellow on the drone airspace map requires permission from the Central Government and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) authority, respectively. No permission is required to operate a drone in a green zone, which is where most of the drone operations currently happen, the response added.
Nine remote pilot training organisations
In a separate response to the Lower House , Singh added that till December 31, 2021, nine remote pilot training organisations (RPTOs) have been set up, by Government and private entities.
These include one each in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, two each in Telangana and Maharashtra, and three in Uttar Pradesh.
Any person between 18-65 years of age and with a class tenth certificate from a recognised Board can obtain a remote pilot licence after successful completion of training from the authorised remote pilot training organisations.
The response further added that a person who intends to establish a Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) should submit an application to the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the Digital Sky Platform, along with the specified fees.
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