Tata to set up Rs 1,000 crore helicopter unit in Hyderabad SEZ

Tata Advanced System Limited (TAS), a unit of the Tata group, will set up a helicopter manufacturing unit at the Aerospace Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Adhibatla village near the Hyderabad international airport.

The Rs 1,000-crore project will be commissioned by June next year and will come up at a 50-acre facility in the SEZ on land leased by the state government-owned Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). The lease deed was signed by an APIIC official and Devender Kumar, chief executive officer of TAS, here on Monday after Major Industries Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana was sworn in.

TAS will be setting up the facility in collaboration with the US-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.

The project was announced at the India Aviation meet in Hyderabad last year by Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

Lakshminarayana said the government is convinced that the project will promote the state as an aerospace destination.

APIIC Chairman BP Acharya said this would be a high-end facility and would generate 1,000 jobs directly and another 4,000 indirectly. The APIIC is promoting the SEZ on 250 acres and has roped in several defence and precision engineering units in the private sector. “This is a major investment project in the state,'' he added

The ground-breaking ceremony for the manufacturing unit will be held in a fortnight.

TAS had a collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries to set up a surveillance systems facility also at the SEZ, officials said, adding that TAS operations would be spread to defence products as well and would be the focal point for a large number of high-tech activities.