iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Helicopter Factory at Tumakuru in Karnataka was dedicated to the nation on February 06, 2023. The factory is India’s largest helicopter manufacturing facility and will initially produce Light Utility Helicopters.
The LUH is an indigenously designed and developed three-ton class, single-engine multipurpose utility helicopter with unique features of high maneuverability. Initially, this factory will produce around 30 helicopters per year, with the capacity to be enhanced to 60 and then 90 per year in a phased manner.
The Greenfield Helicopter Factory, spread across 615 acres of land, has been set up to become a one-stop solution for all helicopter requirements of the country. After initially producing LUHs, the factory will be augmented to produce other helicopters such as Light Combat Helicopters (LCHs) and Indian Multirole Helicopters (IMRHs). It will also be used for the maintenance, repair, and overhaul of LCH, LUH, Civil Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), and IMRH in the future. Potential exports of civil LUH will also be catered to from this factory.
The HAL plans to produce more than 1,000 helicopters in the range of 3-15 tons, with a total business of over Rs 4 lakh crores over a period of 20 years. Besides generating direct and indirect employment, the Tumakuru facility will boost the development of surrounding areas through its CSR activities with large-scale community-centric programs on which the company will spend substantial amounts. All this will result in improvement in the people’s lives in the region.
The proximity of the factory, with the existing HAL facilities in Bengaluru, will boost the aerospace manufacturing ecosystem in the region and support skill and infrastructure development such as schools, colleges, and residential areas. Medical and health care would also reach the community residing in the various nearby Panchayats.
With the establishment of facilities like a heli-runway, flight hangar, final assembly hangar, structure assembly hangar, air traffic control, and various supporting service facilities, the factory is fully operational. This factory is equipped with state-of-the-art Industry 4.0 standard tools and techniques for its operations. This factory will enable India to meet its requirement for helicopters without import and give a fillip to helicopter design, development, and manufacture.
After dedicating the factory to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the talent and innovation of Karnataka’s youth and said the manufacturing sector’s strength is manifested in products from drones to Tejas fighter planes. “Double-engine government has made Karnataka the first choice of investors,” the Prime Minister asserted and illustrated the point by the HAL project dedicated today, for which he had laid the foundation stone in 2016 with a pledge for reducing foreign dependence for defense needs. Karnataka Chief Minister Shri Basavaraj Bommai, Ministers of the state government, and senior officials of the Ministry of Defense were among those present on the occasion.
India has developed the capability to manufacture arms and defense equipment that are being used by the country’s armed forces. From advanced assault rifles to tanks, aircraft carriers, helicopters, fighter jets, and transport aircraft, India is manufacturing it all.
Speaking on the aerospace sector, Modi pointed out that the investment made in this sector in the last 8-9 years has grown by five times as compared to the investment made before 2014. He said that indigenously developed arms are not just supplied to the nation’s armed forces, India’s defense exports have also grown manifold.
Defense minister Rajnath Singh stressed, “Not just the soldiers, but scientists, engineers, machinists, technicians, MSMEs, individual innovators, start-ups, industrial workers and all other sections are contributing to national security and socio-economic empowerment of the country, he added. Shri Rajnath Singh stated that while the Armed Forces are at the borders, every citizen is behind the scene supporting and encouraging them. The HAL Helicopter Facility is proof of that collective resolve.”
