Sandesara to set up India's first pvt aircraft MRO

Company to pump in Rs 7K crore.

The Sandesara group, promoters of Sterling Biotech, is all set to take off the country’s first private aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) project in Vadodara.

The company has lined up investments to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore for this.

“We are in close talks with a US firm to partner the project although we would not like to divulge the name at this point of time. Today Indian companies usually go abroad to get their aircraft maintained and hence setting up an MRO is very much needed,” said a senior official of the group.

The initial investment would be about Rs 2,500 crore and this would be ramped up further in a span of five years, he added. The unit will come up at Jambusar in an area of about 4,000 acres.

The group is meanwhile aiming to pump in Rs 14,000 crore for expansion of their Sterling SEZ in Jambusar.

The state government has meanwhile cleared additional 6,000 acres land for the multi-product SEZ expansion and the total area with the Sterling group is now about 9,000 acres.

Also, the company has got letter of intent from the state government for developing Dahej port along with Virginia Port recently. The project cost of the port project is pegged at Rs 3,000 crore.

“The group is into oil business in the OPEC countries and have got the necessary finance support,” said a senior company executive when asked how they would fund the projects.

Sandesara group is also planning to foray into power.

It aims to set up a power SEZ for an overall investment of Rs 16,000 crore which will be capable of generating 4,000 MW of power.