An upcoming aero space and defence park on the out skirts of Chennai will see its first entrant in January with VinMn, a start-up to make engines and components, setting up unit.

Tamil Nadu is setting up the aerospace park in Sriperumbudur-Oragadam, about 50km from the city . Nearly 12 aircraft component manufacturers have been given inprinciple clearance by the state government to set up units. They will now be allotted land. VinMn has been allocated 40 acre in the aerospace park.

“Ground clearing work is underway and we hope the government will complete the process by December. We will ground break in January,” Venkatesh Chandrasekaran, CEO, VinMn Aerospace said.Funded by PE investors, VinMn is venturing into making of aerospace components and unmanned aerial vehicles by acquiring an auto-components precision manufacturing unit. Aerospace appears the next frontier for manufacturing companies in the state as it can supplement the ecosystem that services Bengalurubased Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

“Between Salem, Hosur and Chennai, we could be the biggest in aerospace vertical.We expect the size of business to be in the region of $10 billion in 10 years,” Chandrasekaran said.

An association — The Aerospace and Defence Industry Association of Tamil Nadu — has been formed to lobby for the interests of TNbased companies in this sec tor. This body hopes to act as an interface and enabler in efforts to supply component parts for the RTA (Regional Transport Aircraft) project, which is a joint initiative of HAL and National Aer and National Aer ospace Laboratories. The basic version of the aircraft will have 80-90 seats (RTA-70).

“The three states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are the aero hub triangle in India and companies which are expected to come up in the aero park in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadum belt can look to develop components for the RTA,” N Shekar, president of the association, said.

Drawing similarities between auto manufacturers and vendor units, Shekar said aircraft component manufacturing units located in the region could end up supplying various parts to the RTA.

“An end to end RTA programme would take about eight years to complete. It is a smaller aircraft and could cater to regional connectivity requirements,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / September 11th, 2015