For drones to carry out research and inspection activities at its three power plants in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, NTPC gets permission from the Civil Aviation Ministry.

The ministry, after granting the public sector unit (PSU) a “conditional exemption” from some rules of drone, said that NTPC  can use drones at Vindhyachal super thermal power station and Gadarwara super thermal power plant, both located in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh’s Sipat super thermal power project.

The ministry also said that the conditional exemption is till December 31 or till the full operatalisation of Digital Sky Platform, whichever is the earliest.

While NTPC gets the conditional exemption, it will still need to obtain the necessary clearances from the local administration, the Defence Ministry, the Home Ministry, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).

“NTPC will use the drones to carry out terrain mapping, stockpile volumetric analysis, aerial inspections and other applications at the three NTPC sites,” said Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.

He further stated, “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.”