India News | Aviation Ministry Permits Experimental Drone Flights of SpiceJet, Dunzo, 18 Other Entities

New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) The civil aviation ministry on Tuesday permitted experimental drone flight operations, which would be beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), of SpiceJet, Dunzo Air Consortium, Skylark Drones and Swiggy, and 17 other entities.

The 17 other entities include Virginia Tech India, ShopX Omnipresent Consortium, Asteria Aerospace Private Limited, Centillion Networks Private Limited, Marut Dronetech Private Limited and Sagar Defence Engineering Private Limited, the ministry said.

The ministry has granted a conditional exemption to these 20 entities from the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021, for "conducting the BVLOS experimental flights", it said on Twitter.

The exemption will be valid for a year or until further orders, it noted.

On May 13, 2019, a committee formed by the ministry had invited expressions of interest (EOIs) for BVLOS experimental flights.

The committee evaluated the 34 EOIs received and selected the aforementioned 20 entities.

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