Team News Riveting
New Delhi, October 23
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for the deployment of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) for carrying out research and inspection activities.
The nod to use drones had been given for the Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station and Gadarwara Super Thermal Power Plant, both in Madhya Pradesh, and Sipat Super Thermal Power Project in Chhattisgarh.
Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said, “NTPC will use the drones to carry out terrain mapping, stockpile volumetric analysis, aerial inspections and other applications at the three NTPC sites.” This will provide NTPC excellent data with high accuracy at a fraction of the cost.
This is in line with Government of India’s attempts to promote use of industrial drones in infrastructure, mining, agriculture and disaster relief etc, Dubey added.
The conditional exemption will be valid till 31st December 2020 or until the full operationalization of Digital Sky Platform, whichever is earlier.
The NTPC shall obtain necessary clearances from the Local Administration, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Air Defence clearance from Indian Air Force and Airport Authority of India (AAI) prior to operation of RPAS.
The operation of RPAS shall be restricted to day operations (from sunrise to Sunset) within Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS).
