Aerospace engg charts flight path to Baramati

Pune: Hitherto known as the auto-component hub of India, Pune has upped its ante and staked claim as the new backroom for aerospace engineering. The trigger for this foray has come in the shape of the ongoing boom in the civil aviation industry and it’s the city-based Bharat Forge Limited (BFL) – already a global player in the auto-components sector – that has stepped in to fill the newly created space with a Rs 350-crore facility - Centre for Advanced Manufacturing - at Baramati in Pune district.
The plant will have forging capacity of 30,000 tonnes a year, manufacture one lakh machined crankshafts and will engage 1,200 workers. With global aviation majors Boeing and Airbus looking to source components from India, Bharat Forge is all ready to board their vendor list. The plant will start commercial production in April 2008 and is looking at a turnover of Rs 350 crore in the first 18 months.
Baba Kalyani, chairman, BFL said, “This is how China built its own civil aviation industry - by using the offset programme and the technology flows that came with it over 15 to 20 years”. Bharat Forge will start with structured parts and landing gear while aerospace engine parts will come next.
Apart from aerospace, this new plant will also make forged parts for marine, locomotives and the power sector. Kalyani said the entry into the non-automotive space was also a way of de-risking the company’s business from the downturns in the automotive market.
01/05/07 Pune Newsline

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Categories: General Aviation May 2007, New May 2007