Wednesday, January 28, 2015

DGCA yet to formulate regulatory mechanism for private drones

New Delhi: Even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has banned use of drones for commercial purposes, it is yet to formulate a mechanism to regulate their operations in keeping with the associated security concerns.

The issue has gained significance particularly after a drone, being flown for recreational purposes, crashed into a tree in the White House lawns in the United States on Monday. It reportedly went undetected by the highly sophisticated radar system installed at the seat of power.

“The incident is, in a way, a confirmation of our concerns over approval for use of drones by private entities without having a regulatory mechanism in place,”said an official, adding that the commercial use of drones was banned last September by the DGCA citing air-space security reasons till a regulatory mechanism was devised.

Commercial use of drones was brought to the notice of the government after the Mumbai Police raised questions on a restaurant carrying out a test delivery of pizza to a customer using an unmanned aerial vehicle. Global e-commerce giant Amazon also had plans to use drones as part of goods-delivery mechanism.
28/01/15 Devesh K Pandey/The Hindu
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