20 Startups receive approval from MoCA to experiment long range drone flights

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed 20 entities to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) experimental flights of drones. Some prominent names include Swiggy, Spice Jet and Dunzo. The MoCA stated that they granted the preliminary permission to assist the supplementary framework development of subsequent UAV rules pertaining to BVLOS drone operations.

What is BVLOS?

The aggreagetd meaning of BVLOS or BLOS refers to flying a drone without  a pilot maintaining visual line of sight on the aircraft at all times. Instead, the pilot operates the drone using Remote Pilot Station or a Ground Control Station instrument. That is, a pilot does not provide protection to the drone in terms of natural causes viz., terrain, obstacles etc.

A BVLOS operations requires careful planning by operators , major training requirements and several government approvals. Obtaining an approval to fly BVLOS, while hugely valuable, is a challenging task. "These BVLOS trials will help create a framework for future drone deliveries and other major applications using drones," MoCA said.

The entities and companies include:

1. Aerospace Industry Development Association of Tamil Nadu (AIDAT)

2. ANRA consortium (A and B) <2 entities>

3. Asteria Aerospace Pvt. Ltd

4. AutoMicroUAS Aerotech Pvt. Ltd.

5. Centillion Networks Pvt. Ltd

6. ClearSky Flight Consortium

7. Dunzo Air Consortium

8. Dhaksha Unmanned Systems Pvt. Ltd

9. Marut Dronetech Pvt. Ltd

10. Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd

11. Saubika Consortium

12. Skylark Drones and Swiggy

13. ShopX Omnipresent Consortium

14. SpiceJet Ltd

15. Terradrone Consortium B

16. The Consortium

17. Throttle Aerospace Systems Pvt. Ltd

18. Value Thought IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd

19. Virginia Tech India.

Telangana Drone delivery

Last month, the Government of Telangana recieved conditional exemption for conducting experimental delivery of Covid-19 vaccines within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) Range using drones. To accelerate the drone deployment process to formulate application-based models, the grant has been extended to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The trials may commence by end of May 2021 after it submits an SOP.

This exemption shall be valid for a period of one year from the date of approval of the SOP or until further orders, whichever is earlier.