Newsroom24x7 Staff

New Delhi: Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has restricted civil use of drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by non-government agencies, organizations or individuals.

DGCA had issued a public notice restricting the used of drones on 7 October 2014, which can be acessed on DGCA website http://www.dgca.nic.in.

The public notice by DGCA clearly spells out that till the regulations for civil use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems are issued, no non-government agency, organization or individual will launch an UAS in Indian Civil Airspace for any purpose whatsoever.

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has not issued any Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) for operation of civil UAS so far. However, DGCA has circulated draft guidelines for stakeholder consultations.

This information was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.