Centre clears decks for Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park at Mihan

The Reliance Aerostructure proposal for the development of the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park with related infrastructure facilities and services at Mihan SEZ (Nagpur) has been cleared by the Board of Approval (BoA) for special economic zone (SEZ) under the Ministry of Commerce, according to an official source.

"With the BoA nod, the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park (DAAP) at Mihan, spread over 289 acres, will become the largest greenfield aerospace park in the country. In the first phase, development will be spread over 104 acres and the second phase will cover an additional area of 185 acres," the source said.

Business at the aerospace park is expected to exceed Rs 200,000 crore over the next 30 years.

"The aerospace park will also be home to the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited joint venture, which is presently creating the state-of-the-art integrated eco structure to execute the Rs 30,000 crore offset program linked to the sale of 36 Rafale Fighter Jets."

The construction at the aerospace park is expected to start by end of the month with production starting in the first quarter of 2018, the source said.

The aerospace park with a proposed investment by Reliance of Rs 6,500 crore is expected to generate more than 10,000 skilled jobs, p'omoting 'Make in In'ia' and 'Skill India' initiatives of the government.

Dassault Reliance JV has already shortlisted more than 200 vendors, mostly small and medium size enterprise to be part of the supply chain at DAAP.

Apart from the Dassault Reliance offset facility, the park will also be home to proposed facilities with Thales, DAHER and Strata amongst others.

The proposed projects in the first phase include production of aircraft, electronic warfare systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), maintenance repair and overhaul for commercial aircraft and complete eco-system of tiered suppliers to support these large projects.

Reliance will co-develop DAAP with the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) which is the nodal agency for developing the Mihan SEZ.