Final decision on helicopter repair plant at Honda in 3 months, says Union minister of state for defence Shripad Naik

PANAJI: Union minister of state for defence Shripad Naik on Tuesday said that a decision will be taken within three months on setting up infrastructure at Honda for a helicopter engine overhaul and repair plant.
The project was inaugurated in 2016 by former chief minister Manohar Parrikar. Helicopter Engines MRO (HE-MRO), a joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and French aerospace firm Safran Helicopter Engines was supposed to set up the engine overhaul plant there.However, post the inaugural, there has been little or no progress on the project.
“I have met with HAL officials and they have given an assurance that the project will come up. Further, they said that if the French government is not ready to take the partnership forward, they will take on a new partner. They said the final decision will be announced in three months,” Naik said.
Parrikar, in his capacity as Union defence minister, had initiated the HE-MRO joint venture in 2016. Both HAL and Safran had a 50:50 stake. At the initial stage, the joint venture was supposed to invest over Rs 21 crore to launch the maintenance and repair facility in the state.
As per the initial strategy, the repair facility would provide maintenance repair and overhaul services for Safran TM333 and HAL Shakti engines installed on HAL-built helicopters. Once operational, HE-MRO would at first target repairing 50 helicopter engines each year, with provisions to ramp up this capacity to 150 engines in the future. The Honda plant would employ 100 people and was meant to start repair activity in 2018. However, the project failed to take off.
Despite being inaugurated on October 23, 2016 and paying Rs 7 crore to EDC Limited, the joint venture was denied possession of the land. EDC had even sold the premises and existing machinery of Goa Auto Accessories Limited (GAAL) to HE-MRO. It was only much later that land was transferred to HAL.
Naik urges youth to participate in IAF recruitment drive
Panaji: Union minister for state defence Shripad Naik on Tuesday said that for the first time, a special recruitment drive for posts as airmen in the Indian Air Force, will be held from August 27 to 29, at the GMC Athletic Stadium in Bambolim. He appealed to Goan youth to participate in huge number and make the best of such an opportunity.
Goan men, born between July 19, 1999 and July 1, 2003, and have passed their Class XII examination in any stream with 50 per cent marks, are eligible to participate. For non-science stream students, the recruitment process will be held on August 17 while for student from the science stream, it will be held on August 29. Interested participants must report at the venue at 6.30am.