India is another step closer to opening up its skies to drone-based business offerings, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shortlisting seven proposals for conducting experiments on drone-based services. These seven consortiums, which include food aggregators Swiggy and Zomato and delivery services start-up Dunzo, have been asked by the civil aviation regulator to provide more information on their proposals.
The process of selecting companies to conduct experiments on commercial use-cases of small drones began with a DGCA floated Expression of Interest (EoI) in May this year. "The objective of the proposed experimental Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) operations shall be to conduct experimental operations of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in controlled conditions… for a period of at least 2 months, collect evidence, prepare safety case and submit Proof of Concept (POC) to DGCA," the DGCA EoI invitation has said.
While the original plan had called for approvals to be issued by August, the committee evaluating the proposals had not been able to finish examining the proposals on time. “But, now that a few firms have been asked for more technical information, the approvals are likely to come through in a month or so,” said a central government source.
Among the other firms which are said to have made the list are drone-based health services providers Redwing and Zipline, which have already partnered with the state governments of Uttarakhand and Maharashtra to build systems to deliver drugs, vaccines and blood packets to remote areas in the states.
Those in the running for the approvals say that once received, it would significantly fast-track how drones are used in India and the commercial use-cases. “This will open up a whole new space for businesses and start-ups to explore and exploit. These experiments will also show whether such systems can be deployed safely, so it is a very important development to the players in this area,” said an industry executive, wishing to remain anonymous.
Some companies have already tested some drone systems which could aid their businesses. For instance, Zomato had, earlier in June this year, announced that it had successfully tested its maiden drone delivery system by using a hybrid drone which flew five km in around 10 minutes at a peak speed of 80 kmph. The DGCA’s invitations for proposal only covers micro and small drones, which are classified as unmanned aircraft weighing between 250 gram to 2 kg and 2 kg to 25 kg respectively.