Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is all set to roll out the first Indian-made S-92 chopper cabins in November this year.
TASL, in a joint venture with US-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, has set up a helicopter cabin manufacturing facility at the Aerospace and Precision Engineering Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Adibatla, near here.
Senior officials of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), which developed the SEZ, said the TASL facility had commenced production on April 8 and the chopper cabins were expected to be ready by November.
APIIC has allotted 50 acre in the 250-acre SEZ for setting up the TSAL facility, which will initially cater to the exports market. The main manufacturing unit has come up over an extent of 7 acre.
Being the anchor client of the Adibatla aerospace cluster, TASL gave a major boost to the state government's plan to project Hyderabad as an aviation hub. Now, APIIC officials said, many were coming forward to set up shop at the place but land was not available.
They told Business Standard that Tata group was also asking for an additional land of 70 acres for setting up another facility for manufacture of aerospace components. However, there was only an extent of 40 acre, which was readily available for allotment. The aerospace cluster is spread over 350 acre. Of this 250 acre has been notified as SEZ.
Besides TASL, APIIC had allotted 30 acre of land in the SEZ to Nova Integrated Systems (NIS), 25 acre to Punj Lloyd, 20 acre to Mishra Dhatu Nigam (Midhani) and 96 acre to Samuha, a consortium of manufacturers including MTAR Technologies Private Limited.
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NIS, a joint venture between Tata group and Israel Aerospace Industries, is setting up a defence systems manufacturing facility at a cost of about Rs 500 crore. APIIC officials said that it was going to start construction in a span of three months.
On the other hand, Samuha is stated to be investing about Rs 1,500 crore in the aerospace and high-precision metrological test and measurement facility. It has been allotted an additional 106 acre of land outside the SEZ.
APIIC advisor, D Pardhasaradhi Rao, said that the corporation was planning to spend Rs 28 crore on development of the necessary infrastructure in the SEZ. It had so far spent Rs 10-12 crore on creation of facilities.
Godrej group seeks land
APIIC executive director, Sreedhar Cherukuri, said that the Godrej group had come forward to set up a facility in the state for manufacturing and assembly of all its consumer goods. “They approached us for allotment of 35 acre of land in Hyderabad, Nellore or Visakhapatnam. We are looking for allotment of suitable land for them,” he said, adding that Godrej was expected to invest about Rs 500 crore in the proposed unit.
According to Cherukuri, APIIC’s fine and speciality chemicals park, being set up over an extent of 1,000 acre at Atchyutapuram near Visakhapatnam, is also getting good response.
So far, three companies, including Nagarjuna Agrichem, have come forward to establish their units at the place. The park consists of 500 acre of SEZ and an equal extent of non-SEZ land.