World's first chopper city coming up in Gujarat

Gujarat will soon be home to a hi-tech Helicopter City that promises to be a one-stop shop for all chopper-related services - maintenance, hire, overhaul, R&D, aerospace training, design and avionics.

The project will come up near Surat in Gujarat and is touted as world's first integrated complex for chopper services. Australia-headquartered Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), world's leading provider of independent aviation market intelligence, will invest around Rs 1,000 crore to develop the Helicopter City that will be part of the Rs 11,500-crore Gujarat Vittal Innovation City (GVIC), a multi-product SEZ that will come up at Umargaon near Surat.

The project will also draw global investments as talks are on with US-based and Middle East-based companies. The project will include a general airport and is part of the largest single-location aviation project in the country.
Former chief vigilance commissioner and GVIC chairman N Vittal told ET: "At present, domestic companies have to get these (chopper) services from Dubai and Singapore. With the Helicopter City coming up, the company expects the project to be a breakthrough in the aviation sector."

With India Inc expanding operations, chopper services are gaining popularity. As per an estimate, India can produce 125-150 choppers yearly if policies and regulatory requirements are suitably amended and procedural barriers removed.

This can attract an investment of about $350 million. At present, companies charge Rs 75,000 per block hour, depending upon the package of the service, CAPA sources said. According to the director of Oasis Aviation Faruq Sarkari: "Helicopter hiring has increased in the past five years. Also, more and more corporates are now owning choppers like never before. Apart from transport, choppers are used for diverse operations like cleaning chimneys. If cleaning carbon earlier required 15 days, now 15 chimneys can be cleaned in one day by
using choppers."

CAPA CEO, South Asia, Kapil Kaul said in addition to providing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, the project will also have an aviation institute with facilities of R&D, aerospace, design and avionics.

"As the SEZ is close to Mumbai, we will also construct a general aviation airport," Mr Kaul said adding an MoU has been inked for setting up the Helicopter City, and a master plan and feasibility study were underway.

Mr Kaul said it was too early to ascertain the quantum of investments, but revealed that talks were on with companies based in the US and Middle East for investments.

GVIC, jointly promoted by a consortia of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) and EMPI Vittal Centre INNOPOLIS will have knowledge-based manufacturing production, R&D and incubation activities. GVIC CEO inspired by Global high tech innovation Pankaj Sarin said: Of the 2,500-acre SEZ area at Umargam in Valsad district, about 800 acres would be allotted to the Korean companies.

Planning for the project is likely to take about five months, and the project is likely to create one lakh new jobs. Once the land is allotted, the work on SEZ will be completed in 18 months. "We are also in talks also with Singapore and Taiwanese government," Mr Sarin said.

The project will draw inspiration from clusters like Silicon Valley of US, Hsinchu in Taiwan, Tsukuba in Japan, Daedeok Innopolis in Korea and Sofia Antipolis in France

reference: Economic times