Swiggy, Dunzo and 17 other similar companies have now been given the go ahead for experimental drone flight operations by the civil aviation ministry.
Last year the government had announced that the ‘carriage of payload’ as well as ‘dropping of articles’ by unmanned aerial vehicles is prohibited under the draft Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2020.
How will these experimental drone operations be held? Read on to find out!
Swiggy, Dunzo To Start Experimental Drone Flight Operations
These experimental drone flight operations will be beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), which means that an exemption has been granted to these 20 companies for experimentation.
Other than SpiceJet, Dunzo Air Consortium, Skylark Drones and Swiggy, these companies also 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, as confirmed by the ministry.
The ministry has tweeted about this decision that these 20 companies will be given an exemption from the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021, for “conducting the BVLOS experimental flights”
As per reports, this exemption will be valid for one year or until further notice.
20 Companies Of 34 Given Permission For Drone Operation Experiments
On May 13, 2019 a committee was formed by the ministry which invited expressions of interest EOIs for BVLOS experimental flights. The Committee received 34 EOI which the above mentioned 20 and entities have been selected after evaluation.
Last year in June, we reported to you that SpiceJet and Reliance Industries backed start-up Asteria Aerospace had given approval to 13 consortia including delivery startups like Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato to test fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones.
Additionally, there also was news that the management consulting firm Alternative Global India (AGI) will be assisting both Zomato and dunzo as a consulting partner to conduct these trials.
The homegrown food aggregator business, Zomato will be stating its testing in Alwar in Rajasthan.
While, hyperlocal delivery platform, Dunzo is planning to go through trials in the outskirts of Bengaluru.
This is still a developing story and we’ll keep you informed as we get any more updates!
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