Russia offers India co-production of airliners
12 Dec 2011
New Delhi: Russia has offered co-production of five commercial passenger aircraft models in India, including their its latest 90-seat Sukhoi 100 Superjet.
The offer comes ahead of prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Russia next week and marks a serious attempt to take Indo-Russian cooperation beyond the sphere of defence.
Apart from the Sukhoi, the other models on offer are the TU-204 series with a capacity of 200-plus passengers, the AN-148 with seating capacity ranging between 75-100, the MS-21 with a capacity for 150-200 passengers and the 70-seater BE-200.
The BE-200 is also used for fire-fighting, patrolling as well as search and rescue missions.
Both sides have held preliminary discussions in the run up to the visit.
The prime minister had set up a national task force to study the feasibility of initiating an indigenous effort under the chairmanship of former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, which has backed an Rs8,300-crore effort to develop a 90-seater indigenous civilian aircraft over a period of five years.
