New Delhi Oct 26 PTI The Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday issued draft guidelines for aviation sector stakeholders such as airlines and airports to ensure disabled people can travel at easeActor and dancer Sudha Chandran had last week in a video posted on social media narrated her ordeal of how she was made to remove her prosthetic limb every time during a security check at any airportAccording to the draft guidelines airport operators must make special arrangements to facilitate screening of persons with special needs so that the process is carried out efficiently keeping the dignity and privacy of the passenger in mind During the screening of prosthetics the airport security -- which is handled by the CISF at most of the airports -- might use X-ray explosive trace detection devices or visual checks according to their requirement it mentionedThe passenger -- who has a prosthetic limb -- will first pass through the door frame metal detector and should then be taken to a private screening point and made to sit comfortably it noted This passenger will then receive additional screening including a pat-down the draft guidelines saidA prosthetic appliance which does not have any foam padding cover under which any weapon or explosive can be concealed and in which the steel rod of the appliance is clearly visible may be screened by visual inspection and ETD checks only without removing it However in rare cases where there is sufficient justification including profiling of the passenger X-ray screening may be resorted to it stated adding the justification for subjecting a prosthetic limb to X-ray screening shall be recorded by the screener in a register Prosthetic appliances that are covered in foam padding and in which the steel rod is not visible must undergo X-ray screening it mentionedThe draft guidelines also said that passengers who have external devices including insulin pumps hearing aids cochlear implants spinal stimulators bone growth stimulators and ostomies will not have to disconnect them for X-ray screeningUnder most circumstances a passenger can conduct a self-pat-down of these devices followed by ETD screening of his or her hands it addedDisabled passengers should inform the airline about their complete requirement 48 hours before the scheduled departure so that the carrier can make necessary arrangements it mentioned If a passenger wants to check-in their wheelchair at the airport the airline must ensure that the wheelchair is duly taxed and sent to the baggage make-up area with a service partner to avoid any damage it noted Passengers should check with the airline on the specific requirements of bringing service animals on flights A low floor coach or a ramp should be used for comfortable boarding or debarring of wheelchair users the draft guidelines mentioned Airlines should ensure that a disability awareness training is conducted for new hires and ensure periodic refreshers are conducted for all staff to reiterate policies and standard operating procedures on customer assistance with different types of disabilities it mentioned The Civil Aviation Ministry has given three weeks for people to send their comments and suggestions on the draft Accessibility Standards and Guidelines for Civil Aviation after which final guidelines will be issued PTI DSP NSD NSD

New Delhi Oct 26 PTI The Civil Aviation Ministry has notified a traffic management framework for drones under which public and private third-party service providers will manage their movement in the airspace under 1000 feetCurrent air traffic management ATM systems have not been designed to handle the traffic from unmanned aircraft the framework issued on October 24 statedIntegration of unmanned aircraft in the Indian airspace using conventional means may require unmanned aircraft to be equipped with bulky and expensive hardware which is neither feasible nor advisable it notedThis requires the creation of a separate modern primarily software-based automated UAS unmanned aircraft system Traffic Management UTM system it said adding that such systems may subsequently be integrated into traditional ATM systemsThe integration of UTM and ATM will be important to continuously separate manned and unmanned aircraft from each other in the airspaceThe framework allows third-party service providers to give services such as registration flight planning dynamic deconfliction and access to supplementary data like weather terrain and position of manned aircraftAlso a set of supplementary service providers will also be permitted under the framework to provide services such as insurance and data analytics to support the UTM ecosystemDigitalSky platform shall continue to be the interface for government stakeholders to provide approvals and permissions to drone operators wherever required according to the frameworkAll drones except Nano drones operating in the green zone shall be required to mandatorily share their real-time location through the network to the Centre either directly or through third-party service providers it mentionedIt said the third-party service providers will first be deployed in small geographical areas that could be increased graduallyMoreover these service providers will be permitted to charge drone operators a service fee and a small portion of it might have to be shared with the Airports Authority of India AAI which manages the ATMSmit Shah director of industry body DroneFederation of India said in a statement Traditional traffic management services provided by ATCs air traffic controllers for manned aircraft cannot be scaled for managing drone traffic which is expected to become at least 100 times higher since the traditional ATMis manual and requires human intervention This policy framework shall allow third-party service providers to deploy highly automated algorithm-driven software services for managing drone traffic across the country he addedThe Union government had on September 15approved a production-linked incentive PLI scheme for drones and drone components with an allocation of Rs 120 crore spread over three financial yearsThe ministry had on August 25 notified the Drone Rules 2021 that eased the regulation of drone operations in India by reducing the number of forms that need to be filled to operate them from 25 to five and decreasing the types of fees charged from the operator from 72 to fourThe framework has been issued under the Drone Rules 2021 only PTI DSP IJT