Sources in HAL said that Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis had assured the Sunabeda plant's managing director NR Mohanty that the Indian Air Force (IAF) would favourably consider the proposal of manufacturing the Sukhoi-30 at Sunabeda MiG factory. Tipnis has reportedly told Mohanty that the IAF would accord permission to the plant to overhaul the Russian fighter aircraft this year. According to sources, the job of overhauling of the aircraft would be a beginning towards manufacturing the plane indigenously.

During his recent visit to the Sunabeda factory, Tipnis laid the foundation stone for a Rs 50-lakh research test laboratory in the plant premises, sources said. For developing indigenous technology for the manufacture of fighter aircraft, HAL set up a facility at Sunabeda in 1964 for assembling and testing aircraft engines.