Baramati, October 29 () Former Union Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday claimed that the ‘Final Assembly Line’ (FAL) of Gujarat-based Tata Advanced Systems and Airbus was earlier to be set up in Maharashtra, but at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi it was done. Transferred to his kingdom.
Addressing an election rally in Baramati assembly constituency, Pawar said, “Ratan Tata wanted this project to be set up in Maharashtra and with his consultation, a 500-acre plot in Nagpur MIDC area was identified for it.”
Pawar said, “This was during the Manmohan Singh-led government, of which I was a part. The government changed and when Modi became the Prime Minister, he called Tata and asked them to set up a factory in Gujarat.
Pawar said that project would have created thousands of jobs in Maharashtra. The veteran politician claimed that when Modi asked Foxconn to set up its (semiconductor) factory earmarked for Maharashtra in Gujarat, thousands of jobs were lost from Maharashtra.
Pawar said, “The Prime Minister does not belong to any one state, rather he has to think about the entire country.”
There has been no denial of Pawar’s claims so far from the government or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Giving a boost to the government’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ programme, the inauguration of the plant on Monday is the first example of the private sector setting up aircraft FALs in India.
The FAL was inaugurated in Vadodara on Monday by Modi and Spanish President Pedro Sanchez. Three years earlier, the Indian Air Force had formalized the acquisition of 56 Airbus C295 aircraft to replace its aging AVRO fleet.
As per the contract, 40 units will be manufactured and assembled in partnership with TASL in this FAL, while 16 will be delivered to the IAF in ‘fly-away’ condition from the Airbus final assembly line in Seville, Spain. A total of six aircraft have been supplied so far.
Vaibhav Naresh
Naresh