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Register drones by January 31 or face action under Indian Penal Code: Ministry of Civil Aviation
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday (January 13) issued a public notice providing a `one-time` opportunity to all drones and drone operators to voluntarily register their drones.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday (January 13) issued a public notice providing a “one-time” opportunity to all drones and drone operators to voluntarily register their drones. The window for registration will open on Tuesday (January 14) and close on January 31. According to Ministry of Civil Aviation, those who fail to register during the given timeframe will face action under the Indian Penal Code and the Aircraft Act.
In a notice, the ministry said, "The presence of such drones, as well as drone operators, has come to the notice of the government which do not comply with the CAR (civil aviation requirements)."
It is to be noted that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), Section 3 - Air Transport Series X, Part I, Issue I, on August 27, 2018 which regulates use of drones in the Indian Airspace and provides the process for obtaining UIN, UAOP and other operational requirements, drones in the country do exist that do not comply with the CAR mentioned above.
Notably, the conditions of NPNT as envisaged in the above-mentioned CAR are not mandatory for this purpose.
After completing the registration process, the drone operators will be issued an Operator Acknowledgment Number (OAN) and for each drone registered under the operator’s profile a Drone Acknowledgement Number (DAN) will be issued.
“We believe that such a step taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation will provide an accurate number of existing drones in India. This data should ideally become the base for understanding the scale of drone operations in India and for taking further policy decisions. This may enable flying of drones easily in the future while maintaining high standards of safety, security and accountability.” said Smit Shah, Director - Partnerships at the Drone Federation of India (DFI).
The Drone Federation of India (DFI) is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led body that promotes and strives towards building a safer and scalable unmanned aviation industry in the country.