New Delhi, Aug 27: The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday approved the finalised draft on drone-flying policy. Drones for commercial purpose will be permitted from December 1.

The move comes along with riders, primarily being the norm that drones could only fly during the day-time, and could not violate the visual line-of-sight. The upper height ceiling of flying drones have been capped at 400 feet.

The taskforce headed by MoS Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, has divided drones into four broad categories depending on their weights. They have been segregated as: nano, micro, small, medium and large.

The airzones have also been partitioned into three parts: red or the no-fly zone, yellow or the controlled airspace, and green or the automatic permission zone.

Nano drones could be flown to a height of 50 feet without permission, whereas, micro drones can touch the peek of 200 feet without permit. For further elevation, clearances would be necessitated. The government and defence agencies, however, need no permission for flying the drones.

The no-fly zone categorised in the draft policy includes the areas around airports, international borders, Vijay Chowk (the area near the Parliament in Delhi), secretariat complex in state capitals, strategic locations and military establishment.

For flying drones in the yellow zone, air defence clearance will be necessitated. The government is also expected to bring out another draft policy which could explore the possibility of allowing drone-flying beyond the visual line-of-sight.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 27, 2018 07:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).