Latest Drone laws, rules, regulations and license in Nepal

Ever wondered how to fly the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) like drones in Nepal? If yes, then this post covers the latest laws, rules, regulations, license, price and every details that are needed to know before operating drones in the Nepalese sky.

With rampant use of drones for various applications, security issues also have been increasing. For the effective and easier use of drones in Nepal, Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) have set new laws, rules and regulations in February 2019. This rules has been made a lot easier than before, indeed operators must follow the instructions strictly. Also the new rules also have set restricted areas where drones cannot be take off.

Also Read: 2019 Best and Top ISP in Nepal

The new rules, regulations and license procedure for drones in Nepal are:

1. Person/Organizations who wants to operate drone should submit application to CAAN (Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal) to get the Unique Identification Number.Accordingly, applicant must include the purpose for using drone. The application can be downloaded from here. This is compulsory for all the drones which will be used in Nepal.

Time Taken: 1-2 days

2. If the drone is set to fly above 200 feet above ground level (AGL), the permission need to take from district administration office or MoHA(Ministry of Home Affairs). For this permission, separate hand written application can be submitted along along with Unique Identification number given by CAAN.

Time taken: 1-2 days

3. The permission validity is for 3 months. However, after 3 months, once can easily renew for next 3 months by visiting the office where application is submitted.

Time taken: 1-2 days(Maximum)

4. Permission is not required for academic/research (university/colleges) purpose having drone weight less than 2 KG within 200 feet around its premises. However, they should inform to the nearest police station earliest.

5. No permission is required to fly a drone 50 feet AGL for recreational purpose, ceremony, cultural and religious programme.

6. The air-route and the area of 5 kilometers around the airport and horizontal distance up to five kilometers on the international border have been designated as prohibited zone for drone flight.

7. Flying drone is prohibited in Maitighar Mandala, Swoyambhunath, Pashupatinath, Bouddhanath, Budhanilkantha, Durbar Square areas (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan), religious and archaeological areas, Singha Durbar area, within their aerial radius distance and residence of the president, vice-president and prime minister.

8. Flying drones is restricted around 1,000 meters of the office of Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police and 500 meters of other security agencies like embassy, CIB (Central Investigation Bureau),etc.

9. No one will be allowed to use drones to cause disturbance to the peace, security and privacy of persons. Security agencies have been authorized to confiscate UAVs flown in prohibited areas and take action against their operators.

10. The HoFA can assign personal to check if operators comply the rules. If not, necessary punitive actions can be taken in the same time according to laws of Nepal.

There is not any fee that need to be paid for drone operation but during application process, government may charge certain fee as application.

If you want to use drones in Nepal and gets fuzzy by the application process, just write back to us in comment section or contact us, we are here to help you. Moreover, what type of drone are you using? Write in comment section.