The maintenance-repair and overhaul (MRO) depot facility being developed by Boeing at Multimodal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) and Special Economic Zone (MIHAN-SEZ) at Nagpur, will finally be operational by March end next year, a Boeing official said on Thursday.
?The construction of the MRO facility, which was delayed by monsoon earlier this year, is on and we are on track to finish it by the end of March,? said Dinesh A Keskar, senior vice-president, sales, Asia Pacific & India.
Boeing plans to commission the facility after the completion of the construction works by Larsen and Toubro (L&T). The facility, which will be operated by Air India, will need the required Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) certification to actually start the maintenance work.
?We expect to get DGCA certification by June next year,? Keskar added.
The plan to set up MRO was a part of an agreement between Air India and Boeing following an order for 737s and 787s, which was placed by the national carrier in January 2006. The completion of the facility has since been delayed due to land acquisition problems. Boeing got possession of 50-acre land in 2010 and started construction work on the two hangars in January 2011.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had late last year said work on MRO facility would be completed by March 2013, but there were delays yet again.
Indian MRO industry is expected to triple in size from Rs 2,250 crore in 2010 to Rs 7,000 crore by 2020, according to the civil aviation ministry data. The $100-million project funded by Boeing will have two 100×100-metre hangars, to accommodate wide-body aircraft like Boeing-777 and 747-800 and another 24,000 sq metre area for the allied work. The MRO would offer maintenance and overhauling services to 300 aircraft a year.
The facility will have over 7,000 employees from Air India Engineering Service, which was hived off from Air India as a separate MRO unit earlier this year, said an Air India official.
This project will be Boeing’s second in the world after Shanghai in China.
