Bahrain address call for drone regulation to protect public privacy, national interests

TDT | Manama           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Mahir Haneef

The Bahrain government is finalizing the implementation of a web-based drone hub system, addressing the call for drone regulation to protect public privacy and national interests.

A total of 12 companies have been qualified in the initial round of the tender and have successfully submitted bids for implementing the Drone Hub System (DHS).

The bidding process also saw a twelve-fold jump in the amount quoted by the highest bidder when compared to the bids received for a tender issued earlier this year. Companies whose bids were accepted also rose from two to 12 this time.

While the highest bidder for the project this time was Fakhroo IT Services WLL, at BD628,716, the lowest bid was made by Ignite Software and Design, at BD17,160. A bid of BD75,020 submitted by Mantech Commercial Service WLL has been accepted with conditions, while the rest of the 11 bids were accepted by the Tender Board upon opening the bids on September 14.

The DHS system is intended to help the Aviation Safety and Security Directorate and the Aeronautical Licenses Directorate manage the entire approval process for drones. In the tender issued on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, it was specified that the DHS system should have a public portal for customers to submit their requests as well as an internal portal for the ministry and stakeholders to process the requests and perform other associated tasks.

In addition to these, the companies have been asked to build a mobile app for customers to submit, track, and view requests and information. Though the ministry had invited tenders earlier this year for implementing DHS, only two companies bid for it when the bids were opened on February 27.

The higher bid was for BD51,216, and the lower one was for BD31,680. It was in July 2019 that a system for regulating drones was sought before Parliament. Fouzia Zainal, who was the Parliament chairperson then, had submitted a proposal highlighting the necessity of implementing norms to govern the import, manufacturing, assembling, and possession of drones.

She cited the need for such a regulation in view of the possibility of drones being misused to infringe upon the privacy of the people and possible harm to national interests.