Haryana has highest number of institutes to train drone pilots

With 24 approved institutes that train drone operators, Haryana has the highest number of Remote Pilot Training Organisations (RPTO), amongst all states in the country, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed Parliament on Monday.

While one among them is a government institute, the rest are private entities. Haryana is followed by Maharashtra with 18 RPTOs and Karnataka with 15. There are a total of 145 RPTOs in the country that have been authorised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to train, test and certify drone pilots, according to the government data.

Replying to a question by Member of Parliament Sanjay Kumar Jha, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said the issuance of Remote Pilot Certificates (RPCs) by DGCA-authorised RPTOs has substantially increased, and as on date 21,030 RPCs have been issued.

Central and state government organisations utilise the service of drone pilots for emergency and citizen-centric services. At present, a total of 85 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) models have been ‘type certified’ by DGCA under different classes such as micro, small and medium for various uses. In accordance with prevailing rules, the scope for issuance of type certificates of UAS is presently restricted to visual line of sight operations only.

In response to another question by Niranjan Reddy, the Minister said that beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations of drones are evolving worldwide and the DGCA has established a working group for preparing a regulatory framework.

Unmanned aviation is evolving worldwide and the DGCA is keenly following developments happening globally by other civil aviation regulatory authorities for developing consensus on development of regulations and integration of AI-powered drones into national airspace.

Further, keeping safety in mind, each drone has to be registered and geo-fencing has been made a mandatory requirement for the type certification, which restricts the movement of UAS within a defined airspace.

An interactive airspace map has been made available, designating low-level airspace as red, yellow, and green zones for drone operations. Operation of drones in green zones does not require permission, whereas in yellow zones, approval from the relevant air traffic control (ATC) authority is needed. For red zones, permission must be obtained from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the ministries or departments concerned controlling the zone.