Ministry of Civil Aviation has released an interactive digital airspace map for flying drones. The map demarcates areas into zones, including yellow and red, across the country for flying drones.

The release of the map comes close on the heels of the civil aviation ministry coming out with revamped drone rules that is based on the premises of self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring of the activities.

For drone operations, the zones are divided into three — green, yellow and red. The map is available on DGCA’s digital sky platform at https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in/home.

Green zone is the airspace up to 400 feet that has not been designated as a red or yellow zone; and up to 200 feet above the area located between 8-12 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport.

Yellow zone is the airspace above 400 feet in a designated green zone. Those above 200 feet in the area located between 8-12 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport and above ground in the area located between 5-8 kilometres from the perimeter of an operational airport would be considered as yellow zones.

The red zone is the area within which drones can be operated only after permission from the central government.

The airspace map may be modified by authorised entities from time to time, the ministry stated, adding that anyone planning to operate a drone should mandatorily check the latest airspace map for any changes in zone boundaries.

“Drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy. These include – agriculture, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence, and law enforcement to name a few. Drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in India’s remote and inaccessible areas,” the ministry said while announcing the digital airspace map

“Given its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and its huge domestic demand, India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub by 2030,” it further added.

Under the drone rules, notified on August 25, several permissions have been done away with, and the number of forms required has been reduced to 5 from 25 earlier. Besides, the types of fees have been drastically cut to 4 from 74 earlier.