Second blow to Maharashtra: Tata-Airbus’ Rs 22k crore IAF deal flies off to Gujarat

European aviation major Airbus and Tata Advanced Systems (TASL), the defence arm of Tatas, will manufacture the C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Gujarat's Vadodara.

While the project, which promises thousands of jobs, comes as a boost for Gujarat ahead of the assembly polls there, for the four-month-old Balasahebanchi Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra, it is yet another blow, that too after industries minister Uday Samant the Shinde. Sena said on September 15 that though the state had lost the Vedanta project, it would secure the Tata-Airbus project to produce military aircraft in Nagpur.

The manufacturing plant will be inaugurated by the PM at Vadodara on Sunday. The new project, with the promise of thousands of jobs, comes just as Gujarat gets ready to vote for its next government. The Tata-Airbus plan is seen as a significant gain for the PM's "Make-In-India" campaign to reduce the country's dependence on buying from aboard military technology and equipment