Tamil Nadu’s quest for an aerospace park is finally set to turn into a reality, with the foundation stone for the first phase of the park to be laid by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami tomorrow (Wednesday).
The aerospace park will house a component park and a testing & design centre in the first two phases, with total investments of well over Rs 500 crore.
The first phase of the park, for which 250 acres have been earmarked, will house industrial units making components for the aerospace industry. Developed industrial plots in the range of 2-10 acres have already been allotted to 14-15 units, with each of them investing Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore for setting up shop, a state government official told TOI.
The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu (Sipcot) has acquired large tracts of land in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam belt for housing manufacturing units across industrial sectors, besides the aerospace park, said the official. “Sipcot has about 1,500 acres in that belt for allocation of land to industries in the Vallam-Vadagal region near Oragadam,” he said.
While the larger aerospace park was planned to house an MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility for the aviation industry, that may have to wait given the international preferences of the global aviation industry and the domestic taxation hurdles.
The region could get a further fillip when the testing & design centre takes off in the second phase. The state government has estimated the initial investment for it to be around Rs 350 crore.
