Making multiutility aircraft in India is a challenge that Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of the $16.2 billion conglomerate, is looking ahead to. In Bangalore to inaugurate the company’s new aero structure manufacturing facility, Mahindra, 58, spoke to ET about the similarities between this current foray into aerospace and the making of the Mahindra jeep when roads were just being built in India. Edited excerpts:
Are you happy with the progress made by the aerospace business vertical?
We are dreamers, but we have our feet firmly on the ground. Even as we take to aviation, mentally and metaphorically, our feet are on the ground. We have some very clear financial targets that we need to meet. And we have a growth trajectory that we have to pursue. This plant is one of them. The new plant has been established at a total cost of approximately Rs 150 crore and has the capacity to deliver about Rs 250 crore in revenue per annum when operating at peak capacity. And pursuing this double strategy of being a component supplier as well as an aircraft maker, I think gives our plan and business model tremendous robustness
What is the status of the multi-role aircraft being jointly developed by National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace?
Even before we acquired GippsAero in Australia, we had begun our journey in making aircraft in collaboration with NAL. We faced a number of challenges on the way related to certification capabilities in India. Therefore, we had to do our first flight in Australia. We have a custom of meeting all those challenges.
Read News In Full 23/10/13 Peerzada Abrar/Economic Times
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