The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Monday, have granted conditional exemption from the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021 to 10 organisations including Blue Ray Aviation (Gujarat), Mahindra & Mahindra, Tractors and Farm Equipment (Chennai) and Bayer Crop Science (Maharashtra).
The exemptions
The exemptions have been provided to Blue Ray for conducting remote pilot training using drones and to M&M for conducting drone-based agricultural trials and precision spraying on paddy and hot pepper crop in the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively. Tractors and Farm Equipment has been granted exemption for conducting drone-based aerial spraying to prevent crop diseases.
Similarly, Gangtok Smart City Development has been granted conditional exemption from UAS Rules for drone-based aerial survey for Smart City Project.
Steel Authority of India’s IISCO Steel Plant (Burnpur, West Bengal) has been granted the exemption for conducting perimeter surveillance of the plant while Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy (Hyderabad, Telangana) has been given the exemption for conducting remote pilot training using drones.
Similarly, Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology received approvals to fly drones from five locations — Bhopal, Pune, Karad (Maharashtra), Osmanabad (Maharashtra) and Farrukhabad (Uttar Pradesh) — for atmospheric research.
“These exemptions are valid for a period of one year from the date of approval or until further orders, whichever is earlier, and shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the SOP issued by DGCA,” it said in a statement.