New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS): The Centre has granted conditional exemption to power generation major NTPC for the deployment of drones to carry out research and inspection activities at some of its plants.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted conditional exemption to NTPC for the deployment of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS).

As per a ministry statement, these drones will carry out research and inspection activities at Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station, Madhya Pradesh, Gadarwara Super Thermal Power Plant, Madhya Pradesh, and Sipat Super Thermal Power Project, Chhattisgarh.

"NTPC will use the drones to carry out terrain mapping, stockpile volumetric analysis, aerial inspections and other applications at the three NTPC sites," Joint Secretary, Civil Aviation, Amber Dubey, said in a statement.

"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."

As per the statement, the conditional exemption is till December 31, 2020 or until the full operationalisation of 'Digital Sky Platform', whichever is earlier.