After granting conditional permission to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to use drones for live aerial cinematography of cricket matches till December 31, the Centre has allowed Kochi Metro Rail Ltd to use drones for the Integrated Urban Regeneration & Water Transport System (IURWTS) project, subject to certain conditions. The conditional approval is valid till December 31 this year or until full operationalisation of Digital Sky Platform (Phase-1), whichever is earlier.
"The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted a conditional exemption for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) usage to Kochi Metro Rail Limited, Kerala for IURWTS," the ministry said in a statement.
Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) should obtain necessary clearances from the local administration, defence ministry, home ministry, Air Force and Airport Authority of India (AAI) as applicable prior to operating a RPAS.
Senselmage Technologies, engaged by KMRL through Techno Vision Survey & Mappings Ltd, would only operate the RPAS, as per the statement.
Photographs and video graphs taken through RPAS should be used by only KMRL, which would also be responsible for safety and security of RPAS and data collected through it.
"The operation of RPAS shall be restricted to day operations (from sunrise to Sunset), within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) in uncontrolled airspace only...," it said.
Among other conditions, the operator has to intimate the schedule of operation to DGCA well in advance for conducting safety oversight.