HAL forms unified helicopter complex to cater to growing business
ALH is the key and focus will be on further increasing the serviceability of the machine
Our Bureau
Bangalore, June 23 Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has recast all its helicopter-related activities that were spread across units under a new, unified Helicopter Complex.
Mr R. Srinivasan, based in Bangalore, has taken over as Managing Director of the complex in a newly created post and is due to join the HAL board shortly.
Umbrella unit
Mr Srinivasan will head five divisions: Helicopter, Helicopter MRO, Rotary Wing Research & Design Centre, Composite Manufacturing and the Barrackpore Division (that used to do overhauling), a company release said.
“The new position has been created to bring all helicopter design, development and manufacturing activities under one umbrella,” it said.
A spokesman said, “All the islands (related to helicopters) have been connected and these divisions will be interacting with customers more (than before).”
This will be the company’s fifth complex.
For the Rs 10,800-crore HAL, the civil-cum-military helicopter business led by its star product, the Dhruv advanced light helicopter (AHL), has just started growing in the country and overseas.
Mr Srinivasan, who joined HAL in 1972 after a master’s degree in engineering from the UK, was quoted as saying, “ALH is the key and I will be focussing on further increasing the serviceability of this machine so that all the customers get what they want without delays. On the civil front, too, we will have to make (deeper) inroads and that will top my agenda.”
Prior to the elevation, he was General Manager, Helicopter MRO.
HAL’s helicopter programmes include light combat helicopter (LCH), the light observation helicopter (LOH) and the medium lift helicopter – or, simply, copters for combat and observation.
It also has designs on the civil market for offshore oil rigs, heli-tourism, corporates, VVIPs, medical travel and disaster-time evacuations.
Competition Up
Competition in the sector is intensifying.
The Tata group, for example, has entered this space through tie-ups with old rotary warhorses – US-based Sikorsky and European Agusta Westland.
With Agusta, it plans to assemble AW119 copters in Pune for surveillance and reconnaissance.
With Sikorsky, it has said it will build cabins for the S-92 helicopters from a facility in Hyderabad.
Until a year or two ago, the copter division contributed around 15 per cent of HAL’s revenue.
The business is looking up, HAL’s previous Chairman, Mr Ashok Baweja, had said during the February Aero India; with Rs 16,000-crore worth orders for 260 Dhruvs for the Army, Air Force, the BSF and other paramilitary forces; Rs 2,000-crore orders for five to seven ALHs from the Ecuador Air Force; Turkey, Suriname and others.
HAL plans to set up a maintenance and marketing centre at Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to chase more Latin American orders.
On the military side, the Ministry of Defence is due to re-tender a 197-copter, Rs 17,000-crore purchase deal. When that comes through, HAL will be the manufacturing partner.
The Hindu Business Line : HAL forms unified helicopter complex to cater to growing business
