Back in October 2017, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) finally came forward to put out the draft policy for the use of drones in India. Now in August 2018, the Government has finally decided to open the skies for flying commercial drone. The Drone Regulations 1.0 is now out and includes some interesting details. While the Drone Regulation 1.0 will be effective from December 1st, 2018, the DGCA is already said to be working on Drone Regulations 2.0.

The drone, owner, and pilot need to be registered with DGCA to officially fly drones. The registration process is completely digital and the drone needs permission every time to take off. The pilot can get the permission for flying the drone using the Digital Sky Platform. The automated process will permit or deny automatically based on certain factors. We think it will be an easy process to get the permission. The new regulation will allow flying drones only at daytime and that too limiting the altitude up to 400 ft.

There are three different zones to fly drones:

Red Zone – Flying Not Permitted

Yellow Zone – Controlled Airspace

Green Zone – Automatic Permission

There are five different categories of drones ( based on weight):

Nano – up to 250 grams

Micro – 250 grams to 2 kgs

Small – 2 kgs to 25 kgs

Medium – 25 kgs to 150 kgs

Large – above 150 kgs

Applicable Fees:

For Unique Identification Number (UIN) – Rs 1000

For Issue of Permit – Rs 25,000

For Renewal of Permit – Rs 10,000

The permit for the drone will be issued by DGCA within 7 working days after providing all the required documents. It will be valid for a period of five years from the date of issue and cannot be transferable to others. No drone pilot can control more than one drone at any time. All the drone operators should have insurance that covers the damages caused to third-party due to accidents.

Stay tuned on PhoneRadar for more details!