Government: Aero India won't be moved out of Bengaluru

New Delhi, Sep 8 Ending speculations, the defence ministry Saturday said the following release of Aero India - considered Asia's biggest aerospace exhibition- will be held in its conventional setting of Bengaluru from February 20 to 24 next year.

A month ago, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had made a request to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to choose Lucknow as the scene for Aero India, activating furious responses from different political parties in Karnataka.

There were speculations that the venue for the mega event may be shifted after the defence ministry indicated that it was looking at demands from a number of states including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to have the twelfth release of Aero India.

"The government has decided to hold Aero India 2019 in Bengaluru from February 20-24, 2019," the service said.

Since its inception in 1996, Bengaluru has been facilitating the occasion.

The service said various worldwide resistance majors and enormous financial specialists in the aeronautic trade will take an interest in the five-day occasion other than driving research organizations from over the world.

"Other than giving a fillip to the local flying industry, it would promote the reason for Make in India," the ministry said in a statement.

In his request to have Aero India close Lucknow, Adityanath had on August 11 said such a move will give a fillip to the proposed defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh.

Days later Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that Bengaluru would be the "best choice" for the event.

"Bengaluru being the hub for defence and aviation majors of the nation, is certainly the most suitable place to lead the show," he had said in the letter.

In the budget for 2018-19, the government announced to set up two defence corridors -- one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pardesh- - to advance barrier producing.

The corridor in Uttar Pradesh will pass through six districts - Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Chitrakoot.