Hyderabad, November 02: Andhra Pradesh will soon emerge as the first State in the country to manufacture helicopters as the Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., (TASL) is firming up plans to manufacture helicopters at the Aerospace and Precision Engineering Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Adibatla.
The company is expected to pump in about Rs 10,000 crore for the proposed project in the next 3-4 years.
TASL, in a joint venture with Sikorsky Aircraft Manufacturing, the helicopter manufacturing division of Hanford- based United Technologies Corp, has already set up a facility to manufacture helicopter cabins for the S-92 brand helicopters with an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore last July.
The first cabin from the manufacturing line, would be launched on November 7 and would be exported to the Sikorsky’s assembly unit in the US for further assembling on November 23.
“Apart from shifting helicopter cabin manufacturing from Japan to Adibatla, the company is also considering shifting its entire helicopter manufacturing line to AP. This will be done gradually in phases over the next 3-4 years,” B P Acharya, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries & Commerce & CIP, Government of AP told Express.
According to Acharya, the setting up of a full-fledged helicopter manufacturing facility in the State will give a fillip to high-end aerospace manufacturing activities in the country besides generating employment.
The State government has allotted 90 acres for the cabin manufacturing facility — which is also the country’s first — that will manufacture cabins for S-92 helicopters – a four-bladed twin-engine medium lift helicopter.
Sikorsky produced over 100 cabins in Japan and expressed willingness to shift the process to AP considering the skilled talent pool, logistics and economical benefits.
The helicopters perform search and rescue missions, transport oil workers to offshore platforms and military personnel for disaster recovery operations.
–Agencies