CHENNAI: Ulundurpet Airfield which operated as a British Airbase during the World War II, might soon be converted to an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Test and Training Range for civil and military purpose. A study was conducted by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) along with IIT Madras for converting the unmanned airstrip into India’s first UAS Test and Training Range.
The State government has written to the Defence Ministry to hand over the land which belongs to the Defence Estates Organisation, for lease to use it for UAS testing and training. One of the key recommendation of the roadmap released at the Global Aviation Summit 2019 is a Drone Corridor, which is a segregated airspace defined by appropriate authorities in consultation with the airspace designers to keep commercial UAS operations out of the non-segregated airspace in which manned aircrafts operate.
