In what could be the first step towards allowing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified a traffic management framework for drones, under which public and private third-party service providers will manage the traffic movement in the airspace under 1,000 feet.
In detailing the need for having an automated UAS (unmanned aircraft system) Traffic Management (UTM) system, the Ministry said: “… India has started taking steps towards enabling advanced use cases like delivery of goods using unmanned aircraft and is also looking at human transportation using unmanned aircraft”.
This requires the creation of a separate, modern, primarily software-based, automated UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system, it said, adding such systems may subsequently be integrated into traditional ATM systems.
