As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first rocket launch from Thumba this week, for Kerala it also serves as a reminder of a lost opportunity.
In the years after the first sounding rocket, a US Nike-Apache, lifted off on November 21, 1963, the State government had nurtured hopes of facilitating the development of industrial units in the neighbourhood of the rocket facility. The idea was that they would cater to the needs of the fledgling space programme. Time has proved that this dream, despite the initial enthusiasm, did not turn into a reality.
Kerala Legislative Assembly records from the 1970s indicate the government’s interest in establishing an industrial area near the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
In April 1971, then Industries Minister N. E. Balaram informed the Assembly that the government had invited applications from “unemployed engineering graduates” in the State for establishing nine industrial units. Replying to P. Neelakantan in the House, Mr. Balaram said the units would manufacture and supply components for the rocket launching facility. Industrial Training Institute (ITI) graduates also could find job opportunities in these units, according to him. At the same time, he also noted that the government had no plans at that juncture to directly start any industry.
The next year, in March, K. Pankajakshan of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) [RSP] raised the matter in the Assembly. He wanted to know how far the proposal for a ‘sub-industrial centre’ planned alongside the rocket facility had progressed. T. V. Thomas, who was by then the Industries Minister, replied that discussions were in progress and that a decision was expected at the earliest.
An exception
Over the subsequent decades, ISRO facilities expanded and developed in Thiruvananthapuram district and elsewhere in India. But State-level industry in Kerala largely failed to keep pace with the growth of the space sector. Perhaps an exception is the Kerala Hi-Tech Industries Ltd (KELTEC - now Brahmos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd) at Chakka, which builds critical systems for ISRO.
Former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, who joined the space programme at TERLS in 1967, says Kerala, with proper planning and vision, could have scored big with industrial facilities growing alongside the Thumba rocket facility which later evolved into the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). ISRO spends huge amounts for fabrication of components by industries. “What if those companies were in Kerala?” he asks.
G. Vijayaraghavan, the founder CEO of Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, noted that small space-tech units did come up in the district, but failed to scale up over time. “Because of the manpower intensity required for some of the units, it is also possible they were set up outside Kerala,” he said.
‘K-Space’
In 2020, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced his government’s plan to develop Thiruvananthapuram as the country’s ‘space city’ by establishing a space park for companies and start-ups catering to the national space programme. After idling for two years, the project received a boost in 2022 with the government deciding to register it as a society titled ‘K-Space.’ At present, land acquisition and other preliminary works are still in progress, according to government officials.
