Key takeaways
- Sarla Aviation invests ₹1,300 crore to establish a 500-acre eVTOL manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh.
- Facility aims to produce 1,000 eVTOL aircraft annually, positioning India as a leader in aerial mobility.
- Integrates manufacturing, testing, certification, and training within a single Urban Air Mobility campus.
- Features include India's largest wind tunnel, R&D labs, and sustainability initiatives for eco-friendly operations.
- Commercial air-taxi services expected to launch across South Indian cities by 2029.
Sarla Aviation announced that it will invest ₹1,300 crore to set up a 500-acre aerospace manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. The project will develop electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, aiming to accelerate India’s transition to aerial mobility.
The facility will function as an integrated Urban Air Mobility (UAM) campus, encompassing manufacturing, flight testing, certification, training, and maintenance all under one roof. According to reports, the company said that it aims to position India as a global contender in future aviation technologies, with an initial investment of ₹1,300 crore and significantly adding more in the future.
The complex will be India’s first end-to-end ecosystem for eVTOL manufacturing and operations. Built to international aerospace standards, it will have the capacity to produce up to 1,000 aircraft a year, placing it among the world’s largest eVTOL manufacturing hubs. The company also said, “This giga facility will shape the aircraft of the future, create thousands of high-skill jobs, and establish India as a global force in sustainable aerial mobility.”
The site will include manufacturing lines for composites, powertrains, wire harnesses, landing-gear systems, flight-control computers and embedded systems. It will also house India’s largest wind tunnel, a two-kilometre runway, VTOL testing pads, R&D labs, simulation environments, pilot training centres, and MRO units.
Sustainability features will include renewable energy systems, water recycling, and zero-liquid-discharge processes, along with biodiversity zones. Sarla Aviation is collaborating with the Andhra Pradesh government on certification infrastructure, R&D support, and UAM corridors, including planned vertiports.
The company expects these systems to enable commercial air-taxi operations across major South Indian cities by 2029. Commercial routes such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi are among the early geographies under consideration for UAM services.
Previously this year, Sarla has raised $10 million in a Series A1 round led by Accel, with participation from the founders of leading Indian tech companies. The company’s early partnership discussions began with Bengaluru International Airport for future air-mobility trials.
