Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, the global hydraulics business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), today unveiled India's first-ever aerospace actuator manufacturing facility at the Devanahalli Special Economic Zone near Bengaluru International Airport.

In the first phase, the plant set up in a 7.2 acre campus with an initial investment of Rs 650 million, will have an initial capacity to produce 2,000 actuators a year. The existing infrastructure allows for expansion of the capacity up to 8,000 actuators per annum.

Industry estimates put the global actuator systems market at $3 billion. Aerospace actuators have various applications in an aircraft, including landing gear, flight control systems, engines and utilities.

The facility was inaugurated earlier today by Wipro Chairman Mr. Azim Premji in the presence of Dr.Klaus Richter (Executive Vice President - Procurement Head EADS/Airbus), M.N.Vidyashankar (Principal Secretary – Commerce & Industry, GOK) and other eminent dignitaries from the Aerospace industry.

"Our vision is to build a significant presence in the Aerospace and Defense market, leveraging on our experience and competence in precision engineering and machining space. Going forward, we see significant opportunities from this business," said Pratik Kumar, President, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering.

In May 2011, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering signed an agreement with Spanish company CESA (Compania Espanola de Sistemas Aeronauticos S.A.), a subsidiary of the global Aerospace and Defence Corporation, EADS, for the manufacture of precision engineering components.

The pact involves transfer of technology as well as manufacturing aerospace actuators and related precision engineering components by Wipro for CESA.

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering plans to double the initial investment over the next six years to expand capacity and add new product lines in precision manufactured components.

"We have ambitious plans for this business and are in talks with several players to develop multiple product lines. Our facility, with end-to-end capabilities from product development, manufacturing to testing, is well positioned to partner global OEMs/tier-Is, who are looking to extend their supply chains to cost-competitive countries like India and also to meet their Offset obligations," said Sunil Rajagopalan, Business Head for Wipro Infrastructure Engineering – Aerospace and Defence.

The unit will commence serial production in April.