The Centre on Thursday notified the new drone rules 2021 for drones operation replacing the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules (UAS), 2021. Notified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the new rules — which Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed as a “landmark moment” — have a five-time reduction in number of forms to be filled to operate them (from 25 to 5) even as types of fees charged from the operator have been drastically brought down from 72 to just 4. The fees too have been made nominal in nature.
The fee for a remote pilot license has been reduced from Rs 3,000 (for a large drone) to Rs 100 for all categories of drones and it is valid for 10 years. The maximum penalty has been reduced to Rs 1 lakh.
The new rules allow drones to operate in the green zone without prior approval. This could mean using a drone for the delivery of goods in residential areas away from the airport.
Calling it a landmark moment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that the new drone Rules usher in a landmark moment for this sector in India. “The rules are based on the premise of trust and self-certification. approvals, compliance requirements and entry barriers have been significantly reduced,” he said. The Prime Minister said the new rules will tremendously help start-ups and youth working in this sector. "It will open up new possibilities for innovation and business. It will help leverage India's strengths in innovation, technology and engineering to make India a drone hub," he mentioned.
As per the new drone rules, the fee has been reduced to nominal levels and de-linked from the size of the drone. The rules have also abolished the requirement of various approvals, including certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, acceptance of existing drones, operator permit, authorisation of R&D organisation and student remote pilot licence. Other approvals such as unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number and certificate of manufacturing and airworthiness have also been abolished.
Drone here means an unmanned aircraft system which has been categorised into five: Nano (weighing less than or equal to 250 grams), Micro (weighing more than 250 grams, but less than or equal to 2 kilograms), Small (weighing more than 2 kilograms, but less than or equal to 25 kilograms), Medium (weighing more than 25 kilograms, but less than or equal to 150 kilograms) and Large weighing more than 150 kilograms).No person shall operate an unmanned aircraft system in a red zone or yellow zone without prior permission. No prior permission shall be required for operating an unmanned aircraft system in a green zone,” the notification said.
The rules define ‘green zone’ as airspace of up to a vertical distance of 200 feet or 60 metres above the area between a lateral distance of 8 kilometres and 12 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport. For other regions, the vertical space could be 400 feet or 120 metres. The airspace above 400 feet or 120 metre in the designated green zone and the airspace above 200 feet or 60 metre in the area located between the lateral distance of 8 kilometre and 12 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport will be designated as ‘yellow zone’.
‘Red zone’ means the airspace of defined dimensions above India’s land areas or territorial waters, or any installation or notified port limits specified by the Central Government beyond the territorial waters of India. Here unmanned aircraft system operations will be permitted only by the Central Government.
No flight permission will be required up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter, it said.
No pilot licence will be required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drones and for R&D (research and development) organisations.Drone corridors will be developed for cargo deliveries and a drone promotion council will be set up to facilitate a drone-friendly regulatory regime in the country, according to the rules.
The rules also stated that there would be no restriction on drone operations by foreign-owned companies registered in India.