The government said Friday that it has selected 15 consortia and four sites to conduct the country’s first aerial drone test scheme in a bid to verify the safety of drone use for land surveillance, safety inspection and package delivery purposes.

The pilot project’s goal is to examine the commercial potential of drones and set up safety standards to make the technology viable, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

“The drone test project will be accelerated as the participating firms and areas have been confirmed. It will also help to invigorate the country’s unmanned aerial vehicle market and promote safety,” a ministry official said.

The nation’s top telecom carrier KT, Korean Air and CJ Korea Express were among the selected companies which will test out the operation of unmanned aircraft at the test airfield for the next two years from December.

The test sites are Busan, Daegu, Yeongwol in Gangwon Province and Goheung in South Jeolla Province. Officials said the four locations have been chosen in consideration of geography and climate diversity that would help it study safety and data gathering issues.

The government plans to rationalize the current legislation on drones which dictates that they cannot be flown at night and restricts them to remain within the operator’s sight.

“The ministry will launch the pilot program from the end of the year after mapping out detailed plans and carrying out safety training with the selected firms and local governments,” the official said.

Korean Air, which performed a successful flight demonstration of its unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft for military use in 2013, said it will experiment the use of drones for forest disaster and facilities safety management as well as transportation of goods.

Korean logistics and shipping firms CJ Korea Express and Hyundai Logistics plan to test them for remote delivery.

The announcement came as the United States and other countries are working on formulating laws to govern the commercial operation of drones.

In July, the first U.S. government-approved drone delivery successfully transported 4.5 kg of medical supplies to a rural health clinic.

Global IT and retail giants such as Google, Amazon and Wal-Mart are currently developing the technology to make drone deliveries possible on a commercially viable scale.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)