Fees for drone pilot training course will decrease in 3-4 months: Aviation Minister Scindia

New Delhi, May 17

Fees for drone pilot training course will decrease within the next three to four months as the number of schools providing this course is going to increase, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.

A farmer, during a virtual interaction with Scindia on drones, raised the issue of high fees for a drone pilot training course.

Scindia said, “You said the fee of a drone pilot course is currently quite high. You should not worry at all.”        

In the last five months, aviation regulator DGCA has certified 23 schools for training drone pilots, he added.

“As the number of schools keeps increasing, the cost of training drone pilots will keep decreasing,” he said.

The minister gave the example of mobile phone’s cost and how it has decreased gradually over the years in India.

“Therefore, as the number of schools increases, the cost of training drone pilots will also decrease. Within the next three to four months, you will see that revolution too as we keep increasing the number of such schools,” the minister stated.

Scindia said the country definitely needed more drone pilots and it was for the same reason that their certification process had been completely decentralised.

“So, now, the DGCA will only certify drone schools, and it is the drone school concerned which will grant certificates to pilots. We have completely removed bureaucracy from this process,” he said.

The Civil Aviation Ministry had earlier this month invited second round of applications for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme that was announced last year to boost drone manufacturing in India.