L&T, Mahindra may bid to partner govt in developing passenger aircraft

Mumbai/Bangalore: India’s largest engineering company Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) and atomotive firm Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) say they will bid to become partners of the government in developing India’s most ambitious passenger aircraft programme.
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) will lead the Rs2,500 crore project to design and produce 90-110-seat planes, called regional transport aircraft (RTA), to connect smaller cities to metros. A similar amount will be invested in manufacturing and building a service network for the plane.
Last week, a government panel approved a one-year feasibility study for the project. It also mandated V. Sumantran, vice-chairman of Hinduja Automotive Ltd, and Arun Firodia, chairman of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, to bring in Indian private partners for the project.
NAL, the aerospace lab of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research or CSIR, India’s largest public-funded research agency, aims to begin commercial production of RTA in six years.
The RTA is expected to be at least 30% more fuel-efficient and have half the running cost of currently used 70-100 seat passenger aircraft.
31/05/10 K Raghu/P R Sanjai/Live Mint

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Categories: New May 2010