Tejas chief designer Kota Harinarayana felicitated in his home city Berhampur

Kota Harinarayana, the programme director and chief designer of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, was accorded a civic reception in his hometown Berhampur in Odisha on Sunday.

It was the first visit of Mr. Harinarayana to his home in Berhampur after Tejas got inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF). His childhood, schooling and college life was in Berhampur. The civic reception in his honour had been jointly organised by former students’ association of City High School of Berhampur, where Mr. Harinarayana had studied, civic organisation Forum for Ganjam and Rotary Club of Behampur. Mr. Harinarayana along with his wife K. Nirmala attended the function. Some teachers of Mr. Harinarayana like M. Jagannath Rao were present on the occasion apart from local MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyaupatnaik, chairperson of Berhampur Development Authority Subash Moharana sub-collector and other dignitaries of the city.

Addressing the gathering Mr. Harinarayana said Indians living anywhere in the country including Berhampur should discard inferiority complex from their minds as they can achieve anything with proper perseverance. According to him Tejas was an example of this.

He reiterated that indigenous Tejas was at par or better than aircrafts of its category produced in any developed country. “It would be able to replace old fighter aircrafts of the country like the MIG”, he added. He hoped that in future light passenger aircrafts would enhance communication link in India.

Mr. Harinarayana is also linked with hopes, aspirations and demands of his home town Berhampur. He informed that he is approaching all relevant authorities to upgrade the Rangeilunda airstrip near Berhampur to a full fledged airport.

He felt if this 1850 m long air strip is extended to at least 2250 m length then cargo planes would be able to land on it. It would be a great adage to the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) coming up near Gopalpur port in Ganjam district. He called upon people of south Odisha to come together to form an integrated developmental plan, in which both public and private authorities would be given equal and proper importance.-The Hindu, BERHAMPUR, August 22, 2016