Delivery of goods via drones on the anvil as enabling norms likely this year
Mint. Currently, the regulations do not permit drone operations beyond the visual line of sight of the drone operator. While the government permitted 20 entities to conduct experimental BVLOS flights in 2021, so far regulatory structure for implementation of these flights is yet to see the light of the day.
In fact, online food delivery platform Swiggy had also invited bids in 2022 for the drone-as-a-service (DaaS) market for its grocery service – Instamart - but the lack of a formal structure has prevented such operations in the commercial space. “We will submit a proposal on how to operate BVLOS flights. There is a huge pressure from the industry that the visual line of sight operations is not serving the purpose completely.
So, there is something that we are discussing called strategic BVLOS," Alok Sharma, chairman, Drone Destination, told Mint. The Delhi-based Drone Destination is a drone pilot training organization with a capacity to train 10,000 pilots a year. The company will also now offer end-to-end aftersales solutions for the drone ecosystem and plans to establish 250 such drone hubs over the next three months with a long-term aim of 1,000 such hubs in two years.
“Before the complete unmanned traffic management comes into picture, we (stakeholders) are trying to assess whether there is a possibility of flying a drone for a longer distance such as 5 km and then a remote control takes over the drone. We are working on these ideas and will demonstrate them to the authorities," Sharma said. “I expect some progress this year, we will see some demonstration.
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