Zomato's home-delivery will use drones: New govt policy
New Delhi : Those who order food from Zomato will now get their parcel delivered through commercial drones. With the approval of Drone 2.0 policy, India is all set to allow the use of drones for delivery purposes just like other vehicles, air taxis.
The Government of India, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in the Global Aviation Summit organised by FICCI, rolled out the Drone 2.0 policy that will be effective in March 2019. For now, it is expected that equipment manufacturers, service providers, engineers will get wide spectrum in the market.
Under the Drone 2.0 policy, India is all set to allow the commercial use of drones - as delivery vehicles, air taxis, and other services, beyond the visual line of sight. Zomato, the food delivery express can now use drones to deliver your food. Also, Uber can ferry you from Point A to B on air taxis.
Till now, the government in India had put a ban on the commercial use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) owing to security reasons. The Drone 1.0 policy unfolded in August 2018 limited the use of drones to only aerial photography, filmmaking, disaster relief, and recreational activities.
Conversely, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has addressed these security concerns in its Drone 2.0 policy. To ensure safe and lawful drone operations in the country, the government has proposed a DigitalSky network that will sub-divide airspace into drone corridors and label them as Red, Yellow and Green Zones.
Red zones are indications to bar bar drones from flying. Airports, military areas, and other high-security locations like Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House come under Red Zones.
Yellow zones are areas where operators need to be “NPNT-compliant”. NPNT or ‘No Permission, No Takeoff’ is a protocol developed by the government to control the airspace used by drones.
Green zones allow operators to get easy permissions to fly drones.
Moreover, Sinha stated-“Both the drone service provider and the air traffic management will have full control over the drone’s journey. If you deviate from your drone corridor, the traffic controller can safely land it or send it home. Different drone ports will be created for different types of drones.”
He also advised entrepreneurs and engineers to “start developing” drone technologies and applications keeping this framework in mind. “There will be plenty of Green Zones, and you will have enough opportunities to explore,” he added.
“We want to put in place the right standards, the right regulations and the right ecosystem such that India can lead the world in drone technologies. We would also like to partner with other countries to make this happen,” Sinha said.
