Indian Rotorcraft announced that a ground breaking ceremony was held today at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, marking the start of construction of a new helicopter production facility and a new step in the development of the Indian aerospace industry. The ground breaking ceremony was conducted in the presence of Mr. Ratan N Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons; Mr. Bruno Spagnolini, CEO, AgustaWestland and other dignitaries. Indian Rotorcraft is a joint venture company formed by Tata Sons and AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, that will assemble, customise and flight test new helicopters for the worldwide market. The joint venture will initially start to produce the 8-seat AW119Ke light helicopter, with production commencing from mid-2013.

Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons, said at the ceremony “The project is integral to our plans in the aerospace sector and we look forward to an enduring and successful partnership with AgustaWestland for fostering the growth of the Indian aerospace sector.”

Mr. Bruno Spagnolini, CEO of AgustaWestland added “We are very pleased through our joint venture with Tata Sons to be playing an important role in the development of the Indian aerospace industry. Not only will this new facility be able to build helicopters for the Indian market but importantly it will supply helicopters to AgustaWestland customers around the world.” He added “Indian Rotorcraft will initially create jobs for more than 70 highly skilled staff who will be trained by AgustaWestland. We see great potential to expand this facility in the future to become a support centre and production centre for other helicopter types.”The Tata Group comprises over 100 operating companies in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. The Group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents, and its companies export products and services to 85 countries. The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $83.3 billion (around Rs3,796.75 billion) in 2010-11, with 58 per cent of this coming from business outside India. Tata companies employ over 425,000 people worldwide. The Tata name has been respected in India for more than 140 years for its adherence to strong values and business ethics. Every Tata company or enterprise operates independently. Each of these companies has its own board of directors and shareholders, to whom it is answerable. There are 31 publicly listed Tata enterprises and they have a combined market capitalisation of about $89.29 billion (as on March 7, 2012), and a shareholder base of 3.6 million. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels.

AgustaWestland has been present in India since the 1930s when the Westland Wapiti was the very first aircraft flown by the Indian Air Force, and then over 40 years ago AgustaWestland commenced the supply and support of the Indian Navy’s Sea King fleet. More recently it has achieved significant success with its commercial helicopter range for VIP and corporate transport, offshore oil and gas support and general charter operations. Nearly 50 AgustaWestland commercial helicopters have been sold in India in the last six years including almost 20 AW139 medium twins.

Agusta Westland