Ministry Of Civil Aviation Releases India’s Airspace Map For Drone Operations

Map is available on DGCA’s digital sky platform at https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in/home.

New Delhi, Sep 25 (TNA) The ministry of civil aviation has released India’s airspace map for drone operations. The drone airspace map comes as a follow-through of the liberalised ‘Drone Rules, 2021’ released by the Central Government on August 25 this year, the PLI scheme for drones released on September 15 and the Geospatial Data Guidelines issued on Feb 15, 2021.

All these policy reforms will catalyse super-normal growth in the upcoming drone sector, an official said.

Top 10 Features Of The Drone Airspace Maps

The drone airspace map is an interactive map of India that demarcates the yellow and red zones across the country. Green zone is the airspace upto 400 feet that has not been designated as a red or yellow zone; and upto 200 feet above the area located between 8-12 km from the perimeter of an operational airport. In green zones, no permission whatsoever is required for operating drones with an all-up weight upto 500 kg. Yellow zone is the airspace above 400 feet in a designated green zone; above 200 feet in the area located between 8-12 km from the perimeter of an operational airport and above ground in the area located between 5-8 km from the perimeter of an operational airport. Drone operations in yellow zone require permission from the concerned air traffic control authority – AAI, IAF, Navy, HAL etc. as the case may be.

Why are drones Important?

Drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy. These include – agriculture, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence, and law enforcement to name a few.

Drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in India’s remote and inaccessible areas.

Given its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and its huge domestic demand, India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub by 2030.

What’s the likely impact of these drone initiatives?

Thanks to the new rules, the drone PLI scheme and the freely accessible drone airspace maps, the drones and drone components manufacturing industry may see an investment of over INR 5,000 crore over the next three years.

The annual sales turnover of the drone manufacturing industry may grow from INR 60 crore in 2020-21 fold to over INR 900 crore in FY 2023-24. The drone manufacturing industry is expected to generate over 10,000 direct jobs over the next three years.

The drone services industry (operations, mapping, surveillance, agri-spraying, logistics, data analytics, software development etc.) will grow to an even larger scale. It is expected to grow to over INR 30,000 crore in next three years. The drone services industry is expected to generate over five lakh jobs in three years.

Ministry of Civil Aviation

drones

Indian Air Space

Drone Operations

Ministry Of Civil Aviation Releases India’s Airspace Map For Drone Operations

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