HAL scouts for land in Shimoga for chopper unit
Officials of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) visited the city on Tuesday to find a suitable site for the proposed full-fledged helicopter manufacturing unit, Deputy Commissioner V Ponnuraj has said.
Ponnuraj said, a team of HAL officials is scouting for 600 acres of government land for the helicopter manufacturing unit to be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore. The district administration has identified 955 acres of land at Devakathi Koppa and Siddalipura. Of this, 150 acres belongs to the government and the remaining land has already been purchased by paying Rs 15 lakh per acre to farmers.
He said the key requirements for establishing the chopper manufacturing are road, railway and air connectivity. Accessibility to a port is also a necessity. The airport is being built at Sogane, seven km from the city.
HAL authorities want the airport to function soon, so that they can initiate work on the helicopter manufacturing unit. Apart from Shimoga, the HAL team visited Hubli, Dharwad and Tumkur.
However, HAL is yet to take a final decision on the location of the helicopter manufacturing unit, Ponnuraj said.
