Two aerospace parks to come up in Hyderabad

The Telangana government has decided to set up two new Aerospace Parks on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on the outskirts of the city in the coming days.

“About 1,000 acres has been earmarked for the second phase of the Aerospace Park that will come up at Ibrahimpatnam. It will have the required infrastructure. Another Aerospace Park to the north of the city is also being planned,” announced Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj K.T. Rama Rao at the 65 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of The Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Hyderabad chapter on Tuesday.

The theme of the conference, which was held on Tuesday in the city, was “Strategies for Indigenous Development of Civil and Military Aircraft”. The minister also assured that the phase one of the Aerospace Park at Adibatla, inaugurated last year, will also be developed as one-of-its-kind aerospace hub.

G.M. Rao, Group Chairman, GMR Group and President, AeSI, during his address said that the Group was planning to establish an Aerospace training hub at the Hyderabad International airport in Shamshabad.

“To make Hyderabad the Aerospace hub, we are planning to establish a high quality Aerospace training hub at Hyderabad Airport that will cater to the evolving aerospace training requirements, of all levels of work force in the industry. For this, our team with the help of a French multinational Safran, visited the world class Aerospace training center located in Morocco,” he said.

“Today, Morocco’s aerospace and defence sector is one of its major GDP contributor. We have the same vision for Hyderabad and this State,” he said.

Stating that India is poised to become third largest civil and defence market in the world in the next five years, R.K. Tyagi, chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) highlighted the importance of forming a National Aeronautics Commission.

He also felt that the Centre should review the existing duty structure and reduce taxes so as to benefit the providers of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) services. “We have two per cent skilled workers as against 70 per cent in developed countries. We need five lakh skilled workers in the next five years in the aviation sector,” he informed, while emphasizing on skill-development programmes for the sector.

V.K. Saraswat, Chairman, AeSI, Hyderabad reminded that the country should brace up to face the big challenge in the form of demand for indigenously developed low-cost passenger as well as military aircraft. He felt that centres of excellence pertaining to aviation sector should come up in the country to cater to this demand.