Drones to Decongest Cities

Addressing the Techfest organised by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay at the end of last year, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the government is working on bringing in regulations for the unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) sector which will help faster and better development of such technologies. Passenger drones can help decongest the choked city roads and students from the premier IITs could do a lot in developing such tools, Jayant Sinha said. “Drones are a massive opportunity. Like electric vehicles, drones will also use the same electric motors and batteries, but the only difference is that they will be in the sky. We are working on bringing in set of regulations for drones that will help make the technology more progressive,” the Minister of State said.

Noting that drones are being used extensively today for various applications such as delivery, surveillance and mapping, among others, he said, “People are now working on creating passenger drones. We also need to develop our own technology to grab the massive opportunity in this space.”Jayant Sinha further said that if developed efficiently, the passenger drones service can be priced at very low and affordable fares. He also said that there is a huge opportunity for inventions in the fields of electric vehicles.