We know that opportunity doesn’t knock on the door often, but on a rare day, if it does, it is our utmost responsibility to make use of it to the fullest.
A golden opportunity has knocked on the door of Goa and Goans in the form of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and French company Safran Helicopter Engines’s facility. At a recent investment conclave, it was announced that the facility will commence operations from June 2021 at Honda Industrial Estate.
It was a dream project of the ex-Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. The announcement that such a project would happen in Goa was made when Parrikar was Union Defence Minister. He clearly worked hard to ensure that a project of such a stature is based out of his State.
And now it is the responsibility of the current State Government to ensure that the project is completed without any hassles. The plant of HAL and Safran is going to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services to the helicopters, which are very important for Indian Armed Forces.
In one shot, this project has catapulted Goa as a leading destination for defence manufacturing in the whole of India. It will change the very perception of Goa from being a laidback State to being a State, which has factories with cutting-edge technologies.
The management of Safran announced that the project will employ Goans, who will be sent to France for training. Until recently, people used to complain that there were no great opportunities for high-end engineering work in the State. But now, HAL-Safran’s project will provide them with the opportunity.
The recent conclave brought French entrepreneurs to Goa, who were looking to collaborate with local businessmen and aerospace and defence was one of the key areas in which they were trying to find partners.
It is clear that foreign investors are looking at Goa as a destination for defence manufacturing. It is now upto the government to use this as an opportunity to bring home the investments. Both, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Union Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik, were present at the conclave when the French entrepreneurs expressed their intention to do business in Goa.
Clearly, an opportunity has come knocking at the highest doors of the State. It would be great if the government takes it upon itself to ensure that HAL-Safran project faces no trouble at all. If it does face issues, it will send a really bad message to the investors’ community.
Time and again, the government has said it does not want Goans to leave their State in search of jobs. So when investments and jobs are coming on their own, the government would do well to lend wholehearted support.
