After building the drone ecosystem and a policy for helicopters, a policy ecosystem for the e-VTOLS (electric vertical; take-off and landing systems) is the next frontier for the government, civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said while speaking at the two-day CII Advanced Short Haul Air (ASHA) Mobility 2023 conference held in Bengaluru this week.

"After Production Linked Scheme for drones is rolled out this month, we are now ready to take the next big steps in the e-VTOL system," Bansal said. He said the ministry would soon have an investigation conducted in the e-VTOL space to better understand it.

E-VTOL is a type of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft that uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically. This technology came about after advances in electric propulsion (motors, batteries, fuel cells, electronic controllers) and the need for aerial vehicles technology for urban air mobility that can enable greener and quieter flights. The Secretary indicated that e-VTOL is the next big air-mobility space to focus on after drones.

"Two years ago, we started building the drone ecosystem. In September 2021, after intensive consultations in the industry, a series of initiatives were taken to liberalize the drone ecosystem, to introduce drone rules, a digital skymap, a regulatory system to regulate the growth of drones, policy initiatives, regulation of the growth of the remote pilot system, certification of drones, financial incentives for drone production called Production Linked Initiatives. In a year and a half, we already have 15 certified drones and another five in the pipeline with the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation. I expect this number to rise to 50 in the next one to two years," Bansal added. India has also released a special policy for helicopters in 2021.

He said e-VTOL is the next technology the ministry will focus on as it has applications that address both densely populated urban spaces and sparsely populated remote countries and smaller towns and villages.

Noticing that the event will set the tone for policy training brainstorming in the e-VTOL space, Bansal called for studying the global protocols surrounding the space and defining roles and responsibilities of various government and regulatory bodies such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Airport Authority of India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the safety regulator, among others.

The e-VTOL is being linked by aviation experts as a solution that can contribute to India's progress towards net-zero targets, if tapped into properly.

"The evolution of Advanced Air Mobility as a public transport platform would also require the development of other technology platforms in the ecosystem. For example, a traffic management system with an automated ATC that provides directions to aircraft would facilitate efficiency and safety," said Amit Datta, chair of cii task force for short-range air mobility.