Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption from Drone Rules, 2021 to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B). The permission has been granted to ICMR for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) vaccine delivery in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Manipur, and Nagaland upto a height of 3000 meters using drones. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has received drone use permission for research, development and testing of drones in its own premises.
This exemption shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the said airspace clearance and shall be valid for a period of one year from the date of approval of the said airspace clearance or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, this conditional exemption from Drone Rules 2021 shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the said airspace clearance. Besides, it shall be valid for a duration of one year starting from the date of approval of the said airspace clearance or until further orders, whichever falls earlier, the Civil Ministry further said.
he statement further mentioned that the link to the public notices can be accessed from the official website of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Earlier, on 11 September 2021, the first of its kind ‘Medicines from the Sky’ project was launched by Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia at Vikarabad in the state of Telangana under which drugs and vaccines will be delivered using drones. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, on 25 August 2021, notified the liberalized Drone Rules 2021 in a bid to usher in an era of super normal growth while balancing safety and security considerations in operations of drones, the statement by the Civil Aviation Ministry added.