New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS): India will soon conduct 'Beyond Visual Line of Sight' (BVLOS) test flights of drone systems for the creation of new regulations that will have provisions for long-range Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations in India, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday.

The minister was speaking at an industry event -- 'Drone Festival of India' -- which was organised here.

According to the minister, the BVLOS experiments will be conducted later this month.

The development assumes significance as these test fights will pave the way for a new draft Civil Aviation Rules (CAR) which will be drafted by regulator DGCA.

Furthermore, Puri said that India has the potential to become the global leader in all aspects of the industry such as conceptualisation, designing, manufacturing and operations of the drone systems.

In addition, he said that a balanced approach would be required to be maintained between security and commercial considerations of these systems.