The Union Government has suggested establishing a corridor for flying drones and setting up a regime for licensing and authorizing flying of drones. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha announced the updated policy for drone operations at the Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai yesterday. The regulations are in line with what the Union government had indicated when it announced Drone Regulations 1.0 in August 2018. Regulators and drone operators are appreciating the regulations put out by India for formulating a safe framework for usage of drones: @jayantsinha, responding to a media question #FlyingForAll — PIB in Maharashtra (@PIBMumbai) January 15, 2019 A whitepaper on the new regulations will be released soon, while the minister has indicated several mainstays in the Drone Regulations 2.0. Here are major proposals in the new policy, as announced by Jayant Sinha yesterday: Drone corridors: creating space in the sky with dynamic red, yellow and green zones. "A 5-km radius around airports and areas around Rashtrapati Bhavan will be red zone...There will be plenty of green zones, and some yellow zones,” said the minister. Drone service providers for registering, licensing and regulation for flying drones Drone ports: To enable drone corridors for different types of drones, and to operate drones beyond the visual line of sight, with payloads, and to enable automation of flight. “Each operational drone has to be registered” said the minister. This was already required in the first phase of drone regulations, “they will become more stringent in Drone Regulations 2.0…
