Government notifies national framework for traffic management of drones

As per the official statement on October 26, 2021, the Government of India has put in place a traffic management system for the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The step has been taken as the number of drones being used here for multiple purposes is all set to see a massive increase.

This has come after the Government of India recently liberalized the drone regulations and also notified a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the drone and drone components in the country.

Why traffic management for drones is required?

The government’s notification regarding a traffic management system for the drones in India has become significant as with the latest liberalized drone regulations, it has become mandatory to safely manage the interplay between the manned and unmanned aircraft, particularly at low-level airspace where the drones fly.

To avoid any form of accidents and damage, the Union Aviation Ministry has notified the national UAS traffic management policy framework.

Boost to the Indian drone industry

The latest development by the government has boosted the morale of the drone industry of India that now anticipates a mass adoption of drones across sectors such as mining, agriculture, geospatial mapping, infrastructure, emergency response, transportation, law enforcement, and defence.

As per the Director of Drone Federation of India Smit Shah, India is ready to witness a scenario where drones will be as prominent as the birds in the sky with the adoption of drones picking up at a fast pace.

She added that the Traffic Management System services provided by ATCs for manned aircraft cannot be scaled for managing drone traffic which is expected to become at least 100 times higher since the traditional air traffic management is manual and requires human intervention.

India’s liberalized drone policy

• The latest liberalized policy framework on the drone industry in India will allow the third-party service providers to deploy the highly automated, algorithm driven software services for managing drone traffic across the country.

• The vision of conducting an outcome-based, time-bound UTM experiment as the key next step of the policy framework will allow the country to engage in a public-private partnership in order to develop safety and separation standards for the drones.

• The liberalized policy will also allow drone operations to scale up rapidly in the country.