Exclusive: Inside Tata Power's plan to take up drone ops for maintaining power lines, preventing thefts

After undertaking proof of concept for over five months, Tata Power is gearing up to start full-fledged drone operations for maintaining power lines, checking on theft of lines, remote power meter reading, and so on.

Apart from buying its own drones, the company plans to develop its in-house drone infrastructure with a dedicated AI-based data analytics module and appointing its own drone pilots, Kiran Gupta, the CEO and executive director of Powerlinks Transmission, told Moneycontrol.

Powerlinks Transmission is a joint venture between Tata Power and Power Grid Corporation of India.

However, Tata Power is still concerned about adopting Indian-made drones over foreign-made ones citing quality issues. Gupta also highlighted privacy and other policy-related issues that may arise as a result of such operations, and delays arising out of the DigitalSky platform under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and wants the government to address them.