Odisha has announced plans to establish a National UAV Test and Innovation Corridor at Rangeilunda airstrip in Ganjam district, positioning the state as a key node in India’s emerging drone ecosystem. The project will convert Rangeilunda into the country’s first operational commercial airport repurposed as a live drone testing facility, allowing unmanned aircraft to be flown and evaluated in real, dynamic airspace rather than in restricted laboratory or fenced test zones.
The announcement was made at the Wings India 2026 aviation summit in Hyderabad, where the Odisha government signed an agreement with home-grown drone logistics startup BonV Aero to lead research, development and testing activities at the new corridor. Under the state’s B-MAAN framework, the test range will be developed in phases and will support advanced use cases such as swarm testing, AI-driven navigation, autonomous airspace management and high-density UAV operations tailored for logistics, emergency response and industrial applications.
Officials said Rangeilunda’s location—near Berhampur and close to assets like INS Chilka and key educational institutions—offers strategic advantages for building a full-stack UAV innovation hub. The corridor is expected to serve original equipment manufacturers, civil aviation regulators, logistics players and other ecosystem stakeholders for experimentation, certification, training and operational readiness of drone platforms, cutting technology readiness timelines for new solutions.
Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Transport Department, said the initiative is part of Odisha’s push to build infrastructure for the “future of mobility” and will create a national platform where regulators and industry can jointly shape India’s low-altitude aviation economy. Once fully operational, the Rangeilunda UAV corridor is expected to attract startups, research institutions and global technology partners, reinforcing India’s ambition to become a leading market and test bed for advanced unmanned aerial systems and drone-based logistics.
