Airbus Eyes Gujarat For Helicopter Plant

26 Dec,2016 | Avirahi Group

In what could give a major boost to aerospace and defence industry development in the state, France-based Airbus group has shown interest in establishing a greenfield helicopter manufacturing facility in Gujarat at an estimated project cost of Rs 2,800 crore (400 million euros). “The company , a global leader in aerospace industry, is interested in setting up a production unit in Gujarat.

Although the company is among the top aircraft manufacturers in the world, a helicopter project is on its mind as far as Gujarat is concerned,” said senior government officials privy to the development. Few days back, senior officials of Airbus group met Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and other top officials. “The company officials discussed the project and their team visited Dholera also,” officials added.

Sources further revealed that Airbus intends to make its own investment of 100 million euros (approximately Rs. 700 crore) for the factory and another 300 million euros (nearly Rs 2,100 crore) is expected to be pumped in by the company’s suppliers and vendors.

“We have proposed multiple projects to kick-start a defence focused industrial ecosystem in the country (India), including an offer to build the C295W military transport aircraft alongside Tata, and a partnership with Mahindra Defence to locally manufacture military helicopters,” stated Airbus group’s website. The French giant’s land requirement includes 900 acres for building the factory and another 1,000 acres for its suppliers, vendors and township purposes. A special purpose vehicle formed for Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), some 100 kms from Ahmedabad, already has 5,000 hectares of land available with it and defence is among the top priority industries in this SIR, to be developed over 22,000 hectares of land.

Gujarat has off late emerged as a preferred destination for defence projects.Corporate companies such Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company , Reliance Helicopters and Asteria Aerospace Pvt Ltd among others have been granted industrial licences to make helicopters and defence related items in the state.The state government has also come up with new aerospace and defence policy with a slew incentives and sops to promote development of defence and aerospace industry in the state. A total 18 licences have been issued to private companies for making defence products in the state in last two years.

(This article originally published on December 25, 2016 in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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