Take it highy: Flying drones in Mumbai to get legal

Flying of drones in India and Mumbai is set to get legal now with the Union Civil Aviation Ministry coming up with India's first policy to regulate the use of drones starting December 01, 2018 from which users will be given permission to fly drones following registration.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation in a statement on Monday said, "Users will be required to do a one-time registration of their drones, pilots and owners. For every flight (exempted for the nano category), users will be required to ask for permission to fly on a mobile app and an automated process permits or denies the request instantly. To prevent unauthorized flights and to ensure public safety, any drone without a digital permit to fly will simply not be able to takeoff."

The statement added, "These regulations will enable the safe, commercial usage of drones starting December 1, 2018. Drone Regulations 1.0 are intended to enable visual line-of-sight daytime-only and a maximum of 400 ft altitude operations. Air space has been partitioned into Red Zone (flying not permitted), Yellow Zone (controlled airspace), and Green Zone (automatic permission)."

However, several central intelligence agencies will have exemptions from the permissions along with Nani and micro drones operating below 50 and 200 feet.

In 2014, the Mumbai Police had contacted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) after a pizza outlet had delivered pizza using drone had sought permission or not. Also there was clarity over the same from Mumbai Police post which it had banned the usage of same.

Further, instead of simply digitizing a paper-based process for registering and operating drones, Civil aviation ministry has formulated an all-digital process.

"The Digital Sky Platform is the first-of-its-kind national unmanned traffic management (UTM) platform that implements "no permission, no takeoff" (NPNT). The UTM operates as a traffic regulator in the drone airspace and coordinates closely with the defense and civilian air traffic controllers (ATCs) to ensure that drones remain on the approved flight paths," reads the statement issued by Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Mumbai Police had prohibited use of drones in the city citing security issues.

"We will study the policy of Union Civil Aviation Ministry on drones and would then take a further call," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Manjunath Singe.