The Telangana government is considering setting up an aerospace park spread across 1,000 acres, besides alloting another 1,000 acres for expansion of an existing facility, said KT Rama Rao, Minister for Panchayat Raj & IT.
Currently, the city boasts of two aerospace parks, one each in Shamshabad and Ibrahimpatnam. KTR, however, didn’t mention the timeframe by when the new park will be operational.
“We have earmarked 1,000 acres close to the existing aerospace park and it will be developed by the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation,” he said addressing the 65th AGM of Aeronautical Society of India here on Tuesday.
KTR urged the State chief secretary to extend necessary help to infrastructure major GMR Group, which announced plans to set up a high quality aerospace training hub at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
The proposed facility will cater to the evolving aerospace training requirements. According to GM Rao, chairman, GMR Group, along with France-based Safran they had studied the aerospace training centre in Morocco. “We have the same vision for Hyderabad. In fact, we have developed relationship with the Safran team in Morocco, and they are ready to guide us in creating the aerospace training institute in Hyderabad,” Rao said, adding that with rising passenger traffic and increasing military and defence expenditure, the demand for aircraft was expected to increase significantly.
As per estimates, about $100 billion worth commercial aircraft are expected in two decades. The total spending is pegged between $ 25 billion for commercial aircraft and $100 billion as defence expenditure. Rao said India was set to emerge as the third largest aviation market in the world by 2020 but the sector is plagued by challenges like shortage of skilled workforce .
Source: The New Indian Express