Restrictions hamper useful drone flying

Hyderabad: As many as 1,000 drones are being flown in the city by the drone enthusiasts - some just as a hobby, some for professional uses like taking aerial shots at functions and some others for academic purpose.

But the joy of flying a drone has come to a halt and the numbers have decreased as city police have imposed restriction on their usage. City police have made it compulsory to get permission before flying a drone. Police fear that drone could be used by militants as flying bombs and that's the reason they want to keep an eye on drone flying.

But this step has seriously affected the drone flyers. 'Pixelism', a start-up rose to fame last year while covering a fashion show and this start-up was later called to cover a wedding through aerial photography. Professionals who use drones say that this has major effect on their business, when they receive an order to cover an event a day before it makes them impossible to secure permission from police.

Apart from professionals it is also had adverse impact on students or scholars who depend on it for their academic purpose. People who exclusively invested to fly them during their leisure time say that they can't keep visiting police stations to get permission to fly for a half-an-hour to an hour.

However, Cyberabad Police Commissioner CV Anand says that the action was taken to prevent misuse of drones as some persons have also complained of spotting a drone hovering over their houses. General public endorse city police's measure as they believe that drone fitted with cameras can intrude their privacy.