HAL to rope in private parties for RTA

BANGALORE: Hindustan Aeronautics Limted (HAL) has been a busy industry - either with the delays of ongoing projects or signing up new ones. This has led to the increased participation of private players in the development of the Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA).The RTA, which is being developed with the purpose of short distance travel to Tier II and Tier III cities, would witness an increased number of private developers taking. Speaking at the First Indian Aerospace CXO roundtable, Shyam Chetty, Acting Director of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), said that a major share of the funding would come from the government and this would include private players’ participation too.Chetty added that the involvement of private industries in such activities provides impetus for the country to have multiple means for economic growth and                     advances. “A couple of years ago it would have been unthinkable to develop and aircraft in India without HAL,” he said and added that the aerospace major could not take up more projects and hence private participation would be crucial for the completion of the projects. Reflecting upon the nature of the original agreement, he said that HAL and NAL were to jointly develop the aircraft in 2007.He added that due HAL’s commitments of developing the Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft, Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and other projects had kept the aeronautics major busy and hence would not be able to develop the RTA. The committee  headed by G Madhavan Nair had conducted the feasibility report on the issue and estimated the cost of the development at Rs 7,555 crore, which included design and development of the aircraft. The 80-90 seater aircraft is said to be completed in about six years time and the company is expected to reach  its the target of 36 aircraft after the completion of the first aircraft.