IIT-Bombay Gets Nod For R&D, Testing Of Drones From Civil Aviation Ministry

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption from Drone Rules, 2021, to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B). 

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has received drone use permission for research, development and testing of drones in its own premises.

This exemption shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the said airspace clearance and shall be valid for a period of one year from the date of approval of the said airspace clearance or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Additionally, permission has been granted to ICMR for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) vaccine delivery in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Manipur, and Nagaland up to a height of 3000 meters using drones. 

The Ministry of Civil Aviation, on 25 August 2021, has notified the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, to usher in an era of super-normal growth while balancing safety and security considerations in drone operations. 

Some of the key points for India’s new Drone Rules 2021 include:

• Digital sky platform - a single-window online platform for granting permissions to users.
• There is no requirement for a pilot licence for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drones, and R&D organisations.
• Easy for manufacturers to generate a unique identification number for their drones on the digital sky platform through the self-certification route.
• There is no requirement for flight permission up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter.