Central Mine Planning gets drone use permission for coalfield survey

The Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA grant conditional exemption to Central Mine Planning and Design Institute for drone usage to survey coalfield areas of Coal India. The drones will be used to acquire data for monitoring of mapping and surveying activity. The permission is for UAV-based optical, LiDAR and Thermal payloads, volumetric measurement and inspections in the coalfield areas of Coal India.

The conditional exemption remains valid till April 4^th, 2022 from the date of issue or until the full operationalization of Digital Sky Platform, whichever is earlier.

The SOPs to flying UAV in coalfield area of Coal India stipulates that the exemption from Ministry of Civil Aviation must be obtained from UAS Rules, 2021 before beginning the operations. Also, operating restrictions must be adhered to as stipulated in the extant government regulations. The compliance of conditions on the permissions or exemptions from various agencies such as MOCA/DGCA/MOD/IAF/AAI/State/District/Civic Authorities. And the third party insurance shall be in place before the operations.