Maharashtra signs Rs 35,000 crore deal with innovator

Yadav created waves in February 2016, when he constructed a small airplane on his building terrace and displayed it at the ‘Make In India’ mega-event in Mumbai. The Devendra Fadnavis government signed a MoU with Yadav’s Thrust Aircraft Pvt Ltd, India, to set up the plant to build small aircraft and develop Palghar as a new aviation hub. 

The government had already announced that the company of the 41-year-old Deputy Chief Pilot with Jet Airways, would be allotted around 155 acres of land in Palghar, around 100 km from Mumbai, to implement the project as part of the ‘Make In India’ initiative. 

The ambitious agreement was inked in the presence of Chief Minister Fadnavis and Yadav’s company during the ongoing ‘Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018’ global investors’ conclave, which was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on February 18.

The milestone achievement for Yadav comes exactly 90 days after the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation registered his home-built small six-seater aircraft, which was painstakingly built over six years on the terrace of his building in Kandivali suburb, from 2011. 

On Nov 20, 2017, Fadnavis formally handed over the DGCA certificate to Yadav, entitling him to undertake field and aerial tests on the rooftop built airplane. At the ‘Make In India’ event in Mumbai in 2016, Yadav had displayed the aircraft for the first time attracting admiration from the visitors and dignitaries alike. The terrace of his 1,600 sq ft 3-BHK apartment served as the cradle for India’s first individual effort at creating a full-fledged, airworthy aircraft from 2011.