CHENNAI: A $10 billion aviation park project proposal for Chennai is lying in cold storage for three years, despite land being identified for the purpose. The proposal is pending with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, said India’s top aviation expert and the brain behind the Light Combat Aircraft Dr Kota Harinarayana.Speaking at the third edition of Tamil Nadu Manufacturing Summit, Dr Kota Harinarayana, who is the Dr D S Kothari Defence Research Development Organisation chair, Aeronautical Development Agency, informed that a part of the aviation park, if created, could be a special economic zone (SEZ), providing boost to the aviation sector. Interestingly, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has identified nearly 1,000 acres of land for the park, of which more than 200 acres is located near the airport, while another 700 to 800 acres is located near the site of the new Greenfield airport. The proposal was to have an aerospace university, besides a hub for maintenance, repair and overhaul for the aviation sector.Harinarayana said that the irony was that states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had aviation parks, but TN, which exports 30 per cent of nation’s auto components, hardly had one.Venkatesh Chandrasekharan, co-chairman of manufacturing task force of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said that L&T Ramboll, the consultant for the project, had submitted its recommendations to the government, besides CII submitting a draft policy to develop the clusters. “The draft policy is with the government and it is hoped the project would get a clearance from the government soon,” he added.There was a lot of speculation on whether the project would be cleared and the industry heaved a sigh of relief when the government gave the green signal for the development of a second airport, said Venkatesh.
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