Drones can start delivering goods in the Tomsk region in October

TOMSK, Oct 7 – RIA Tomsk. Experimental legal regime (ELR) to remove restrictions on operation of drones (UAVs) may be introduced in October; this will allow UAVs to deliver goods to remote areas of the Tomsk region, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Vladislav Fedulov said at meeting on organization of experimental legal regimes in Tomsk on Thursday.

Earlier it was reported that since 2018, the federal project Taiga has been implemented in the Tomsk region, which involves the creation of an experimental area for delivering goods and performing other tasks using drones. The implementation of the project was hampered by legislation – from September 2019, the rules for using UAVs were tightened: owners who did not register UAVs face fines and deprivation of driving rights. In addition, permission is required for each flight.

"I hope that this month we will complete the approval of the ELR project, and the experimental legal regime introduced in the Tomsk region will be the first case of the introduction of legal regimes in Russia. Tomsk region is quite large... Most of the population is concentrated around cities.., but part of the population lives in an inaccessible territory. And UAVs would help communicate with these sites," Fedulov said.

As the RIA Tomsk correspondent, who attended the meeting, reports, the experimental regime will be introduced for three years. With the successful introduction of the ELR, the experience is planned to be extended to other regions of Russia.

Now it is clear from the ELR project that drone routes will pass outside large settlements, dispatch areas of airfields, flight restriction zones, and places for public events. Organizations – UAV owners will have to insure liability to third parties (damage to health and property). The drone at all stages of the flight will have to be controlled by an external pilot.

During the meeting, Georgy Bautin, head of the Russian Post aviation transport management department, said that after the introduction of the ELR, the organization plans weekly cargo deliveries as part of experimental routes in the Tomsk region. Oleg Egorov, representative of Gazpromneft-Snabzhenie, noted that the delivery of cargo by UAV will significantly save the costs of delivering cargo to oil industry organizations.

According to Andrey Antonov, Deputy Governor for Economy of the Tomsk Region, a list of 13 project participants has now been compiled. After the introduction of the ELR in the region, all business representatives will be able to take part in the project by contacting the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Earlier it was reported that the Federal authorities may approve the program of the experimental legal regime (ELR) for OOO "Regional operator "Unmanned systems" from 2022.

The first basic operational center for servicing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be the Valery Chkalov aviation site in the Tomsk region, and sites in Kolpashevo, Bakchar and Kargasok villages and Kedrovy will also be adapted for drones.