The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which regulated civil aviation in India, has 63 authorised Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) in the country as of July 25, 2023, according to a written statement provided by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, V K Singh, to the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The regulator has also issued 25 types of certificates for drone manufacturing.
Maharashtra has the most significant number of RPTOs at 12, followed by Haryana with 11, then Gujarat and Karnataka with six each.
The DGCA has also sanctioned three RPTO applications in the state of Madhya Pradesh which are as follows:
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Gwalior
Ultimate Energy Resource Private Ltd, Bhopal
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Bhopal
The government has notified production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components to encourage domestic manufacturing and make India more self-sustaining and compete on a global level. On February 9, 2022 import of foreign drones was banned while regulations to import drone components were relaxed. Moreover, drone rules have been liberalised in order to facilitate the wider application of drones.
Encouraging drone manufacturing while also building RPTOs will also increase employment. So far, these training institutes have certified more than 500 remote pilot certificates and 10,010 drones have been registered with a unique identification number (UIN).
First Published: Aug 03 2023 | 4:18 PM IST