Inaugurating the C-295 aircraft facility in Vadodara along with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new complex will benefit micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. The Tata-Airbus manufacturing facility at the TATA Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) Campus will support indigenous manufacturing of 18,000 aircraft parts, providing immense opportunities for MSMEs across India, PM Modi said.
Stressing on skilling and job creation, PM said that projects like this will create thousands of jobs as well.
According to the details about the new facility, India will get 56 C-295 aircraft, of which 16 will be delivered directly by Airbus from Spain while the remaining 40 will be made in India by Tata Advanced Systems.
The new facility is the first private sector Final Assembly Line (FAL) for military aircraft in India which would involve manufacturing, assembling, testing and qualification, delivery and maintenance of aircraft.
“Apart from Tatas, leading defence public sector units such as Bharat Electronics Ltd. and Bharat Dynamics Ltd, as well as private MSMEs will contribute to this program,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The foundation stone for the assembly line in Vadodara was laid down by PM Modi in October 2022.
He also highlighted the iDEX scheme by the government under which around 1,000 defence startups in the past five to six years have been supported. PM Modi also informed that India’s defence exports have increased 30 times over the past decade, with the country now exporting equipment to over 100 countries.
In March this year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had launched the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI) scheme with a corpus of Rs 750 crore for startups. The scheme focuses on innovations in critical and strategic defence technologies from startups through grants of up to Rs 25 crore for research, development, and innovation in defence technology.