New Delhi: Within weeks of the drone attack at the Jammu Air Force base, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) has released for public consultation the Draft Drone Rules, 2021 that seek to replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021. These draft rules, among other things, define drones through their sizes and categorise the country into red, yellow and green zones on a strategic basis – especially with regards to distance from the nearest airport.
Inviting public comments, the ministry said the rules have been “built on a premise of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring”. While on the one hand, these rules seek to reduce red-tape by lowering the number of forms from 25 to six, and reducing the fees to nominal levels, without any linkage to the size of the drone, on the other hand, they also seek to remove the ambiguities in the licensing process.
Ministry says aim to promote economic growth, employment
The draft rules state that Unmanned Aircraft Systems (or drones) offer immense opportunities for economic growth and employment generation. They also stipulated that there is a need to regulate their activities so as to ensure they “do not pose any risk to safety or security of people and assets”.
As such, the draft stated that the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules (UAS Rules), 2021 were promulgated by the Centre and came into force on March 12, 2021. It added that the move to bring in the new rules was initiated to make improvements on the same on the basis of “valuable feedback” received from academia, industry and other stakeholders.
So, the draft rules state that public suggestions have been invited till August 5 for finalising the rules that would apply to “all persons owning or possessing or engaged in exporting, importing, manufacturing, trading, leasing, operating, transferring or maintaining a drone in India” and to “all drones that are being operated for the time being, in or over India.”
Drones over 500 kg to be covered by Aircraft Rules
These rules also specify that a drone would only be covered by these rules if it weighed 500 kg or less. “In case of a drone with maximum all-up-weight more than 500 kg, the provisions of the Aircraft Rules, 1937 shall apply,” the draft rules state.
They further go on to classify the drones into five categories on the basis of their maximum all-up weight including payload. So a “Nano drone” would be one less than or equal to 250 gram; a “Micro drone” would be a drone weighing over 250 gram but up to 2 kg; a “Small drone” will be one weighing more than 2 kg and up to 25 kg; a “Medium drone” has been classified as one weighing over 25 kg but up to 150 kg; and finally a “Large drone” would be one weighing over 150 kg but no more than 500 kg.
The draft rules also spell out that “these rules shall not apply to drones used by the naval, military or air forces of the Union”.
As for the certification, they lay down that “no person shall operate a drone in India unless it conforms to a certificate of airworthiness or is exempted from the requirement for a certificate of airworthiness under these rules”.
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Entire airspace segregated into red, yellow and green zones
With the Jammu Air Force Base bombing showing the harm drones can do to strategic installations or the kind of threat they pose to the security to the VIPs and guarded buildings, the draft rules have also specified an “airspace map” for drone operations, which segregates the entire airspace of India into red, yellow and green zones.
It lays down the “Red zone” to mean the airspace within which drone operations shall be permitted only under exceptional circumstances by the Union government. The “Yellow zone” has been defined as “controlled airspace of defined dimensions above the land areas or territorial waters of India within which drone operations are restricted and shall require permission from the concerned air traffic control authority.”
The “Green zone” means the airspace from the ground up to a vertical distance of 400 feet (120 metres) above ground level (AGL) that has not been designated as a red zone or yellow zone in the airspace map for drone operations. It also covers the airspace from the ground up to a vertical distance of 200 feet (60 metres) AGL in the area located between a lateral distance of 8 kilometres and 12 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport.
The rules also provide that no flight permission would 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.” Further, they lay down that no pilot licence would be required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drone and for research and development organisations. Also, there would be no restriction on drone operations by foreign-owned companies registered in India.
Policy to promote delivery of goods through drones
In view of the increasing use of drones globally to deliver food and other consumer items, the draft rules also hint at the prospect of “transfer of goods through drones”. Here, they provide for “drone traffic management”.
The MCA has laid down in respect of this section that the Union government may publish the policy framework in respect of the Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) System on the digital sky platform. It added that “the framework for developing drone corridors for safe transfer of goods by drones shall be specified in the said policy framework” and that it would also specify the roles, powers and responsibilities of state governments and Union Territory administrations therein.
A statement issued by the ministry on July 15 had also mentioned how a “digital sky platform” would be developed as a business-friendly single-window online system for providing certification and various clearances. It added that “there will be minimal human interface on the digital sky platform and most permissions will be self-generated.”