As announced by Civil Aviation Minister Mr Suresh Prabhu at the recent ‘Global Aviation Summit 2019 in Mumbai’, the Government is working to constitute a ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ (SPV) involving HAL, NAL, ADA and possibly ‘a private company’ to design & develop a 70-90 seater regional transport aircraft in India. According to the Minister, India needs “2,300 new airliners to meet future air travel demand” and that “we will soon roll out a road map for the manufacturing of (such) aircraft in India”. 

Earlier, on a Webinar broadcast, Director of National Aerospace Laboratories, Mr Jitendra J Jadhav, outlined the approach on the RTA programme which will be followed by a special seminar at Bangalore on 21 February. On sidelines of Aero India 2019, the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in association with the Department of Production and Ministry of Civil Aviation, have organised an international seminar on ‘Civil Aviation-Regional Air Connectivity’. An approach paper on the proposed IRTA gives the broad parameters of this next generation turboprop regional airliner as being of high wing design with winglets, powered by a futuristic turboprop engine, and extensive use of composites in its structure.