Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) will build a new facility just 80 kms away from Bengaluru to manufacture light utility lelicopters (lUH). The growing demand of helicopters both in military and civil sectors has made HAl decide to set up a new line to manufacture light utility helicopters.
Addressing the media at the ongoing Aero India show on Thursday HAl Chairman T Suvarna Raju said the PSU would be building a green field manufacturing facility at Vasantha Narasapura in Tumakuru District in Karnataka to manufacture helicopters, which will mainly include lUH.
“We are setting up a greenfield facility near Tumakuru to manufacture lUHs in the three tonne class for which there is a huge potential demand in the domestic and international markets,” HAl chairman T Suvarna Raju told reporters here.
The Karnataka Government had allocated 610 acres of land to the company near Tumakuru, about 80 km from Bengaluru, for setting up the plant. “We will start the project by the middle of this year and commence production from April 2017,” he added.
Raju said that HAl would invest Rs400 crore in the design and development of the lUH, whose prototypes will roll out by April 2017 for certification and operational clearance.
The facility will have all complexes like aero structures, engines, aggregators and residential quarters and it will have an annual production capacity for 60 helicopters and the Centre had approved the setting up of the new manufacturing plant for lUH.