Chennai, Sept. 12 Around 4,000 acres of developed infrastructure (final phase) will be required to develop the Chennai Aero Park, a proposal mooted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and under consideration of the Tamil Nadu Government. The park in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad will collectively be the largest integrated aerospace facility in the world, according to a concept paper prepared by CII.

The Chennai Aero Park can create direct and indirect employment to the tune of one lakh for highly-skilled resources in the area of aerospace and avionics. An aerospace supply chain with technology development, process development/enhancement, workforce development and infrastructure should be part of an ecosystem, says the proposal presented at Connect2008, the two-day annual ICT (information, communication and technology) event of Tamil Nadu organised by CII in association with the State Government.

The proposed model of the Chennai Aero Park will consist of manufacturing centre, aerospace and avionics service facilities, design studio interiors, university of aerosporatories, aerospace and avionics, research and development and test laboratories, residential and other supporting facilities and an engineering centre.

The park will have a synergy of the best aerospace and avionics technologies and expertise. It will have facilities training/simulator complex, aviation and aerospace management school, aircrew training school, helipad and 3-km landing strip, manufacturing complex, software and IT complex, pilots-aid complex and residential and other supporting facilities, the paper says.

According to the proposal, the design and engineering city will have 150-200 tier I and II engineering firms and provide niche solutions to the market. Residential complex will have around 10,000 engineers. A satellite MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility will be on a 250-acre facility near the greenfield airport with runway access, the paper said.

International industrial houses are keen to come to India to take advantage of available skill base, technology base and cost advantage for global and Indian opportunities.

The concept paper says that 1.65 lakh aerospace workers (of a total of 625,000) will retire in next two years in US alone. The US alone needs 10,000 aviation technicians each year while only 4,000 students enrol. The aviation workforce in the US and Europe is getting old and aviation is no longer attractive for young in these countries, the paper says.

Mr John Douglass, former president and CEO of Aerospace Industries Association of America in his keynote address at Connect2008 welcomed the initiative of the Tamil Nadu Government. “I saw the proposal, which is very good. It is good news for Chennai and for trading partners like the US because it is based on concrete facts about the need for these kinds of centres for the future of global aerospace economy.”

Date : 13/09/2008

Courtesy : Businessline