1000 acres for SEZ near Devanahalli airport

1000 acres for SEZ near Devanahalli airport
Deccan Herald

Cruising along with the aviation boom in the country, Karnataka appears to be seizing the initiative to provide the much needed support infrastructure for the sector.

Cruising along with the aviation boom in the country, Karnataka appears to be seizing the initiative to provide the much needed support infrastructure for the sector.

With construction of the international airport making rapid progress, the State has not only proposed a 1,000-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for aerospace, but also earmarked land for an aviation academy and pilot training schools. Incidentally, all these are likely to come up near the airport at Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Of the 1,000 acre SEZ, 500 acres would be set aside for export-oriented units while the other 500 would be the domestic tariff area, the companies which are part of this will have to sell their wares in the domestic market.

Karnataka Commerce and Industry secretary K M Shivakumar told Deccan Herald on Saturday: “We are getting lot of enquiries from major aerospace companies of the world. We are very confident of the SEZ success. Backward and forward linkages are strong and so is employment generation.”

The SEZ, for which the Government will have to acquire land, will house MROs (maintenance, repair and overhaul), units to manufacture aircraft spareparts etc. Mr Shivakumar added: “One foreign company wants 250 acres to manufacture components for major airlines. It will generate employment to 1,500 people.”

Major names in the aviation industry – such as Airbus, Bell helicopter, CFM engines, Lufthansa, Taneja Aerospace, small aircraft manufacturer ATR – have shown interest in setting up MROs in Bangalore (not necessarily in the SEZ area).

Airbus has already announced that it will tie up with HAL to set up MROs, costing about $ 300 m.

Maintenance, repair, overhaul

MRO is the need of the hour for most of the airlines because they now have to send their planes to Singapore, Frankfurt or Toulouse for maintenance or repair.

“There is tremendous enthusiasm in the aviation sector because of the boom and Bangalore, which is home to largest number of related industries and laboratories, IT industry and human resource, is the natural destination for these companies. Needless to say, the State government wants to cash in on that,” Mr Shivakumar added.

Aviation academy

Like the state industry department, infrastructure development department too wants to grab the opportunity. Its secretary V P Baligar told Deccan Herald that it plans to offer land to companies willing to set up an aviation academy and pilot training schools in the 400 acre area it has near Devanahalli. “There are several companies, including Air Deccan, interested in setting up an academy and schools. While the schools will train pilots, the academy will be for training ground staff and air hostesses,” he added.

Mr Baligar noted that the Government was willing to approve more academies and schools in other parts of the State, including Mysore where an airport is coming up.

Support infrastructure have become necessary because of the stupendous growth in aviation.

Induction of aircraft at the rate of at least one a week for the last one year, which will go on till about 2012, would make it all happen.

From about 280 planes today to over 500 by 2011 would require a huge support base across the country, says a study conducted by Consultant Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Pilots too are a critical component of this growth – the country is currently facing a serious shortage of trained pilots. At the rate of 10 pilots a plane, the country needs around 2,500 pilots in the next five-seven years.

Because of the shortage, one third of the total pilot strength in India are expatriates.



USE OF THE LAND

*1,000-acre SEZ for aerospace

*500 acres for export units

*Another 500 acres for domestic tariff area sector

*SEZ will house MROs

*Aviation industry, infrastructure department show interest