The Tata group has proposed to establish a large aircraft manufacturing factory in city. The Tata group, in joint ventures with international players in the aviation sector, has already launched helicopter assembling and aerostructure manufacturing units successfully. Sources said the group recently approached the state government with a request to provide 300 acres of land with an airstrip for the proposed aircraft manufacturing facility. The government is actively considering allotting the Nadergul airstrip on the Nagarjunasagar highway. “The land is leased to the Airports Authority of India and is now used by the pilot training academies, but they can be given alternative sites,” sources said.
The Nadergul airstrip has two runways, one of which is in use. A runway is compulsory for the manufacturing facility and it would be cheaper to use the existing airstrip rather than build an expensive new one, said an official. The government is keen on the project as it will put Hyderabad on the international aviation map, besides attracting ancillary units that will boost economic activity.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has expressed happiness that a Tata-Lockheed Martin joint venture delivered its first product, C130 Centre Wing Box, in about 18 months from proposing the facility. The CM laid the foundation stone in February 2011 and witnessed the handing over of the first product in August 2012. When it was brought to the CM’s notice that the aero-structure facility came up in just 15 acres, he is said to have commented that it should be an eye-opener for companies that took hundreds of acres of land from the government but did nothing.