CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday urged the Centre to consider establishing a manufacturing facility of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) and helicopters in Salem and also consider establishing a defence maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO) facility in Coimbatore Airbase. He was speaking at the DefExpo 2018, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Tiruvidanthai here.
Palaniswami said Tamil Nadu is in the process of coming out with an exclusive aerospace and defence policy with an objective of achieving 25 per cent share of the sector in the country and creating high-end employment opportunities for around one lakh people in the State. Stating that the development of Chennai aerospace and defence park at Sriperumbudur is one such initiative to start with, the Chief Minister said the park is being set up in 250 acres in the first phase. It is expandable to 500 acres in the next phase.
Welcoming reputed MRO operators to set up their operations in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister said the State is focusing on establishing an MRO complex in Chennai as the city has all capabilities to emerge as the global MRO hub. He said the announcement of defence corridor project has come in handy for Tamil Nadu’s efforts in enhancing the prevailing defence manufacturing ecosystem and the State will wholeheartedly support the project and will provide proper road connectivity, full power supply and other infrastructure requirements, he said.
Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam assured the Prime Minister that the Housing and Urban Development Department will grant industrial planning permission on a single-window basis, within 30 days. “We will also launch an online single window planning permission for all types of applicants in the State, within the next two months,” Panneerselvam added.