Govt plans SPV to prepare roadmap, push development and manufacturing of commercial aircraft, says Aviation Minister Naidu | Business News
The government plans to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to devise and build a roadmap for development and manufacturing of an indigenous commercial aircraft in India, and is looking to involve multiple stakeholders including large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Airbus and Boeing, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said Wednesday.
India is the among the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets with rapid growth predicted over the coming years. For long, the country has harboured the ambition of developing and building its own commercial aircraft. To be sure, small turboprop passenger aircraft are manufactured in India by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), but the country is yet to have its own civilian jet aircraft.
Naidu said that the plan is still in the early stages and the details will be shared once there is something more concrete. Outlining the broad objective of the exercise, the minister said that the planned SPV will seek to address critical questions, concerns, and opportunities around developing a robust aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in India, and chalk out an actionable plan. The expected timeline for the proposed SPV to do the groundwork and work on the aircraft manufacturing plan is five years, Naidu added.
“We want to inform the industry that the government is strongly pushing the idea of India manufacturing its own planes. There have been some instances of it (in India), and the major player has been HAL…But we want to do it on a big scale, where we are not only catering to the demand in the country, but also become an exporter of those planes in the coming days. So to strengthen that idea of building our own planes, we want to form a team…an SPV, and we are trying to see who all can come together,” Naidu told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event orgainsed by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Naidu said that the government is also working on the policy front to promote aircraft manufacturing in India. For instance, the Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak bill, which will replace the nine-decade-old Aircraft Act, has elements—like giving legal backing to design of aircraft—that would encourage manufacturing of aircraft in India, the minister said.
On being asked if global OEMs like Airbus and Boeing could be part of the proposed SPV, Naidu suggested that it is likely.
“India is the major client for them, so they have a strong inclination to partner with us. So, we are going to involve each and everyone in terms of knowhow, or whatever other expertise that they might have,” the minister said.
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India currently has a fleet of over 700 commercial aircraft, a vast majority being single-aisle jets like the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737. Also, Indian airlines cumulatively have around 1,200 aircraft on order with Airbus and Boeing. India is the world’s largest domestic aviation market after the United States (US) and China, and the fastest-growing major aviation market globally.
Apart from having ambitions to develop India’s own commercial aircraft, the government has been pushing OEMs like Airbus and Boeing to set up final assembly lines (FAL) for passenger planes in India. While Airbus is setting up a civilian helicopter FAL and a military aircraft FAL in India in association with the Tata group, the global majors have not yet committed to setting up a commercial aircraft FAL in India.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
