BANGALORE: R K Tyagi got on to the cockpit of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on Friday and took the controls with a promise to chart a flight path that would take the plane-maker to greater heights.Tyagi took over the reins from P V Deshmukh, who was officiating from November 1, 2011.Sources told Express that Tyagi broke traditions and joined at HAL’s Liaison Office in Delhi, instead of its HQ in Bangalore. The man on the hot-seat summoned his office staff from Bangalore to Delhi, probably to get a “weather update” at HAL Divisions. Tyagi takes over HAL at a time when some of its Bangalore Divisions are struggling to meet the targets set in the final quarter of the financial year.The man who gave helicopters on hire at Pawan Hans, in all probability, is expected to encounter some trouble with the HAL’s chopper division as he lands in Bangalore.“There’s a lot of rot in the system that has set in over the years, especially during the periods between April 2009 and October 2011. Ownership is the key and Tyagi will have a tough time in cleaning the system,” an industry expert told Express during the MSME-DefExpo 2012. While Tyagi was engrossed in his first-day-first-show activities in Delhi, back in Bangalore, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju minced no words, and said HAL needed to wake up to stay in race. “We are all proud of HAL, and it plays a key role in our defence manufacturing set-up. It is involved in too many projects and we don’t want them to produce every nut and bolt in aviation,” he said.The minister said HAL was not able to meet the expectations of the Services, primarily the IAF. “HAL is doing a commendable job in absorbing and producing Russian, French and British technologies. However, when it comes to meeting the expectations of the IAF, the production often doesn’t happen on time,” he said. Confirming the Express report on the HAL revamp, Pallam Raju said the Chaturvedi Committee would suggest ways and means to streamline the focus of HAL’s activities.
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