Duke Aviation begins spadework for India's first MRO facility

Maharashtra Governor S. C. Jamir on Thursday laid the foundation stone of Duke Aviation’s aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at the Nagpur Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A Rs 750 crore project spread over an area of 36.5 acres, the MRO is expected to start functioning within two years.

Chief Executive Officer of Duke Aviation, Ajit Karnik said that construction for the project will commence by October 2009. When functional this would be the first MRO facility in the country.

Seattle based aircraft major Boeing Inc has also inked a deal with the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) Limited for setting up an MRO base in the SEZ. The MADC is the state government’s nodal agency for the ambitious Multimodal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) project which has the SEZ annexed to it.

The SEZ, because of its proximity to the international airport and MADC’s commitment to construct taxiways leading to it, is fast emerging as the sole destination for MRO facilities. Besides Boeing and Duke Aviation, US based Bravia Aviation and Mumbai headquartered Max Aerospace have also evinced interest in setting up their MRO facilities here.

The MADC is considering picking up a minority stake in Duke Aviation’s MRO facility most probably in lieu of the land it is providing to the aircraft maintenance company. The ground breaking ceremony was held in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel and Vice Chairman and Managing Director of MADC, R. C. Sinha on Thursday afternoon.