India releases updated drone rules for consultation, plans drone corridors

'Updated rules are built on a premise of trust and self-certification,' says civil aviation ministry.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday released the updated Drone Rules, 2021 for public consultation. The Drone Rules, 2021 will replace the UAS Rules 2021 which was released on 12 March 2021. The last date for receipt of public comments is 5 August 2021.

"The updated rules are built on a premise of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring", the ministry said in a release.

It said new drone corridors will be developed for cargo deliveries and a drone promotion council will be set up to facilitate a business-friendly regulatory regime.

Under the new rules, the approvals for unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, acceptance of existing drones, operator permit, authorisation of R&D organisation, student remote pilot licence, remote pilot instructor authorisation, drone port authorisation etc are abolished.

Number of forms have been reduced from 25 to 6. The ministry said the fee have been reduced to nominal levels and there is no linkage with the size of the drone.  

Safety features like ‘No permission – no take-off’ (NPNT), real-time tracking beacon, geo-fencing etc. will be notified later.  As per the new rules, a six-month lead time will be provided for compliance. Digital sky platform shall be developed as a business-friendly single-window online system.  There will be minimal human interface on the digital sky platform and most permissions will be self-generated.   

Interactive airspace map with green, yellow, and red zones will now be displayed on the digital sky platform.  Yellow zone reduced from 45 km to 12 km from the airport perimeter. No flight permission required upto 400 feet in green zones and upto 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter. 

In the R&D space, no pilot licence is required for micro drones (for non-commercial use), nano drone and for R&D organisations. Restriction on drone operations by foreign-owned companies registered in India has also been removed,

Import of drones and drone components will be regulated and no security clearance is required before any registration or licence issuance.  Requirement of certificate of airworthiness, unique identification number, prior permission and remote pilot licence for R&D entities is also not there.  

Under new rules, coverage of drones under Drone Rules, 2021 is increased from 300 kg to 500 kg.  This will cover drone taxis also.  All drone training and testing will be carried out by an authorised drone school.  

The maximum penalty under Drone Rules, 2021 reduced to Rs 1 lakh.  This shall, however, not apply to penalties in respect of violation of other laws.