‘That would not be appropriate’: Karnataka minister M B Patil on Chandrababu Naidu’s bid for HAL facilities in Andhra Pradesh

“Requesting the setting up of a unit in Andhra Pradesh as part of HAL’s expansion plans is understandable, but asking to transfer the existing Bengaluru operations is not justifiable,” Patil said on Monday.

“To my understanding, Chandrababu Naidu may not have asked for shifting Bengaluru operations. He might have only requested the establishment of a new unit there. However, if he has indeed requested the relocation of operations from Bengaluru, that would not be appropriate,” Patil said in a media statement.

“The reported development regarding Chandrababu Naidu’s proposal at the NITI Aayog meeting, seeking the relocation of HAL, will be discussed with the chief minister and the chief secretary to the government,” he added.

Patil said that Karnataka, which contributes 65 per cent to the national defence and aerospace industry, would also seek sanction for a defence corridor in the state during meetings with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. “I will visit New Delhi shortly to urge the Centre to approve the defence corridor project for Karnataka,” he said.

“While the (defence corridor) project was sanctioned to Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu two years ago, we did not oppose its allocation to other states. However, we wish to highlight that Karnataka qualifies for the project purely on merit — not political influence,” Patil said.

BJP MPs in Karnataka, like Chitradurga MP Govind Karjol, have claimed that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s absence at the NITI Aayog meeting last week had resulted in Naidu pushing for relocation of HAL production facilities in the NDA-ruled state.

AMCA Programme Execution Model approved

On Tuesday, the defence ministry announced that Rajnath Singh had approved the AMCA Programme Execution Model, with the Bengaluru-headquartered Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) executing the programme through industry partnership

“The execution model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis. They can bid either independently or as joint ventures or as consortia. The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

“This is an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Atma Nirbharta in the aerospace sector. ADA will shortly issue an expression of interest (EoI) for the AMCA development phase,” the defence ministry statement said.

The AMCA is a multi-role, light aircraft which is part of the progression from the LCA, which was designed and developed by ADA and is now being produced by HAL.

The history of HAL

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), initially Hindustan Aircraft Ltd, was started on December 23, 1940, in Bengaluru by Seth Walchand Hirachand Doshi with capital support provided by the then Government of Mysore. Although it has production facilities in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Goa, HAL is synonymous with Bengaluru.

The first aircraft, Harlow PC-5, was assembled under American licence and flown in August 1941. A year later, the Indian government became the one-third shareholder of the company and took over its management. In 1951, the Indian government placed HAL under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.

HAL was a maintenance base for all aircraft on the Southeast Asia command during World War II. American warplanes like the Mustang, Liberator, Spitfire and the Hurricanes were serviced at the HAL facilities in Bengaluru.

HAL produced the first Indian designed and built trainer aircraft called the Hindustan Trainer 2, which was the mainstay of the basic training stage of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for over 30 years. In the early 1950s, they started licensed production of the Vampire, which was again the mainstay of the jet fighter fleet of the IAF for about 15 years.

The company has produced the GNAT fighters under license and the first Indian fighters, the HF-24 Jet Fighter Marut. In the early 1960s, HAL designed the Kiran trainer, which has served the IAF for over five decades.

In the late 1970s, HAL started licensed manufacture of the British-French Jaguar fighter aircraft and the Russian MiG 21s, and later in the 1980s, the MiG-27 aircraft as a follow-on project.

In recent years, HAL has been the principal partner of ADA in the LCA-Tejas project, which has major orders from the IAF. HAL has also designed and developed a range of helicopters in recent years, like the Advanced Light Helicopter, Light Combat Helicopter, and Light Utility Helicopter.

New factories have been opened at Kasaragod in Kerala, Tumkur in Karnataka, and Goa to meet increased production requirements for the defence forces.

HAL has also supplied structures for GSLV Mk III, Mars Mission and human crew module for the Indian Space Research Organisation.