Dragon
12-18-2001, 02:11 AM
Soviet-era Plant Reopens In Tashkent For India Plane Deal
Dow Jones Newswires
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP)--The only aircraft maker in ex-Soviet Central Asia has resumed production for the first time in nearly a decade to build refueling planes for India in a $150 million contract, the plant said Monday.
The Indian Defense Ministry reached the deal for six Il-78 planes in October with the Chkalov aviation plant in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, company officials told reporters.
The communist-era plant ceased production after orders dried up when the Soviet Union and its massive defense industry collapsed in 1991, and many Uzbeks had long ago abandoned hope that it would come back to life.
India has already advanced $23 million to the Chkalov plant, and work on the first plane began last week, the officials said. Each plane takes about 18 months to build.
The plant insists it is ready to fulfill the Indian contract, even though its machinery has sat unused for years and many employees have long since found new jobs.
The Il-78, first released in 1984, is designed to refuel long-range fighter jets. The Chkalov plant produced 45 of them before 1991, all of which now serve the Russian or Ukrainian militaries - except for one sold to Libya in 1986.
India has been a key investor in Uzbekistan, which has frustrated many foreign businesses in recent years because of its restrictive bureaucracy, widely varying exchange rates and corruption.
Dow Jones Newswires
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP)--The only aircraft maker in ex-Soviet Central Asia has resumed production for the first time in nearly a decade to build refueling planes for India in a $150 million contract, the plant said Monday.
The Indian Defense Ministry reached the deal for six Il-78 planes in October with the Chkalov aviation plant in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, company officials told reporters.
The communist-era plant ceased production after orders dried up when the Soviet Union and its massive defense industry collapsed in 1991, and many Uzbeks had long ago abandoned hope that it would come back to life.
India has already advanced $23 million to the Chkalov plant, and work on the first plane began last week, the officials said. Each plane takes about 18 months to build.
The plant insists it is ready to fulfill the Indian contract, even though its machinery has sat unused for years and many employees have long since found new jobs.
The Il-78, first released in 1984, is designed to refuel long-range fighter jets. The Chkalov plant produced 45 of them before 1991, all of which now serve the Russian or Ukrainian militaries - except for one sold to Libya in 1986.
India has been a key investor in Uzbekistan, which has frustrated many foreign businesses in recent years because of its restrictive bureaucracy, widely varying exchange rates and corruption.