India will become a global manufacturing hub for transport and passenger

Vadodara: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a project to manufacture C-295 aircraft, which is essentially used for military transport. The project is being set up in Vadodara, Gujarat, for a facility to manufacture around 40 C-295 aircraft. While expressing satisfaction over the project, the Prime Minister exuded confidence that India will become a future global manufacturing hub for defence equipment. The Prime Minister said that large-scale passenger flights would also be made in future, along with transport and military aircraft. The Prime Minister explained that in the next 15 years, India would need more than two thousand passenger and transport planes.

The Indian Air Force still uses aircraft made in the 1960s for military transport. Currently, the speed of communication and military transport has dramatically increased. Hence India needs to upgrade to modern military transport aircraft in large numbers. For this, India is planning to purchase 56 C-295 planes from Airbus, a leading European aircraft manufacturing company. India has signed an agreement with Airbus worth ₹21,935 crores. Out of these 56 aircraft, 16 aircraft will be supplied to India directly by Airbus as per the specifications of the Indian Defence Forces. The remaining 40 aircraft will be manufactured at a new facility in Vadodara. For this, Airbus has entered into an agreement with Tata Group of Industries. The project is planned to augment to meet the increased demand of the Air Force in the future.

This joint venture of Airbus and Tata Group is the first major project of Airbus, which is outside Europe. This project will make India capable of manufacturing military transport aircraft. Only a few countries in the world reportedly have such capabilities. Expressing his satisfaction with the project, Prime Minister Modi claimed that this was a great example of changing the style of India’s functioning. Earlier, decisions were made with the modest expectation that the manufacturing sector would be able to survive. However, the central government has changed this policy and adopted the policy of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for World’. The Prime Minister claimed that the results of this policy have begun to appear.

In the future, India will produce not only military transport aircraft but also passenger aircraft. The demand for aircraft for cargo and passenger transportation is increasing in India, with an estimated demand of more than two thousand aircraft in the next 15 years. Hence it is sensible to manufacture aircraft in India. Along with this, India will become a global hub for producing defence equipment. Prime Minister Modi further said that the defence equipment would be made in India and exported worldwide.

Meanwhile, the project in Vadodara will provide direct employment to around 600 highly skilled persons and indirect employment to three thousand people. Along with this, it is claimed that three thousand people with medium skills will get employment due to this project. At the same time, these military transport aircraft, C-295, will be equipped with the latest facilities and electronic warfare suits required by its pilots, which will be manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited.