Tatas, Ruag Aviation to set up aircraft manufacturing unit in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The Tata group and Swiss aerospace and defence firm Ruag Aviation are setting up an aircraft manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, marking the first major investment in Telangana after the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

For Tata Group, which already has a presence in aerospace and defence at Adibatla on the outskirts of Hyderabad, this will be the fourth venture in the sector. The factory will start by making cabins and wings in the first phase. Group entity Tata Advanced Systems now makes helicopter cabins for the US-based Sikorsky Aircraft.

It has two more facilities in joint venture with Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky and one on its own. In November 2010, the Tata group said it plans to make Hyderabad a hub of its aerospace and defence investments.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday laid the foundation stone for the project of Tata-Ruag joint venture, which in three years will also be manufacturing the 19-seater Dornier 228 aircraft.

Tata officials refused to divulge investment details but a bureaucrat with the Telangana government said it would be around Rs 500 crore in the first phase.