Can anyone help me to procure WPC ETA Approval Certificates for DJI Mavic Air 2 (for bringing drone from outside India)? Third-party consultants are asking more than Rs. 25K for this and asking 2 months time frame which I feel is ridiculous!

Hi, did you receive any reply? Can you update your status?

I did not get any responses. Finally I bit the bullet and asked my friend to bring the drone from outside India by taking a risk. Luckily for him, the customs did not create any issues and he simply kept the sealed box pack inside his check in baggage! Guess he got incredibly lucky.

Anyway I got the drone safe and intact without any ETA hassles.

I can't help feeling so happy for you. I wish you amazing flights and shots Brother!

Shine.

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Thank you bro. By the way, my friend also contacted DGCA directly by going there in person 2 months back. He did not get an ETA certificate, instead he got the following instructions from them:

1. For import of all drones / RPAS, you are required ETA from WPC as per Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) issued by DGCA. Thereafter import clearance from DGCA and import license from DGFT (other than Nano category/ below 250 gms) is required.

2. For obtaining ETA for all kind of Drone/ RPAs including Nano category, you have to apply in prescribed pro-forma along with necessary documents and fee of Rs 10,000/- for each model through bharatkosh  to concerned Regional Licensing Offices (RLOs) of WPC Wing, situated at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai & Guwahati, for respective regions.

3.   As currently WPC website is not operational, we need to apply  offline and then send the hard copy by post or scanned copy through emails to respective RLOs.

4.   ETA form is available with any of the Gazette notifications issued from time to time

5.   Further clarified that ETAs for drones/ RPAS are not under the scope of ‘ETA through self declaration’ scheme, which is available at SaralSanchar portal of DoT website for certain others products as details there in. please visit SaralSanchar portal for ETA through self declaration.  for ETA through self declaration. 

6. ETA once issued for one model by any RLO, the same may be used by other applicants also. I think this is the most important point we all need to understand. So if one of us manages to get an ETA for MA2, let us share in this forum for everyone's benefit.

If all of the above seems like a nightmare and a hassle, then go for the easy and risky path of directly "smuggling" the drone from outside India. This has a 50-50 success rate not to mention sleepless nights and stress.

What you missed out was import regulation.

Certification of goods is one thing. Regulation is another.

There may be ETA available in future, but still, import is restricted. You need to check the import regulation for the product.