Yet to zero in on MRO location in Nagpur: Boeing

The row over Boeing demanding 80 acres of land for its $100 million maintenance, repair and overhaul base (MRO) in the proposed special economic zone (SEZ) here and the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) questioning the requirement, has ended with Boeing saying that it has not yet made any specific request to the MADC.

Vice-president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Dinesh Keskar, denied any controversy and said Boeing was yet to decide on where to locate the project at Nagpur.

Vice-chairman and managing director of MADC, R C Sinha had, during an interaction with the media here recently, expressed surprise over Boeing wanting 80 acres of land when similar facilities elsewhere in the world were being operated on 35 to 40 acres.

Keskar told a local newspaper that Boeing was yet to decide on where to locate the project and had never indicated its requirement to any state agency.

"There are no issues on the land acreage the project will occupy and we do not foresee any difficulty," Keskar said adding that Boeing had nowhere - in any of its correspondence with state authorities - indicated how much land it would require. "Where did this figure of 80 acres or whatever crop up from," he posed.

Sinha also confirmed that Boeing had not given a formal proposal for 80 acres of land. "The officials were working on the details over here and had once mentioned that they might require something close to 80 acres," he said agreeing that this was not an official statement.

"Once the location is finalised they will specify the area they require," he said. Sinha said Boeing had a "state support agreement" with the Maharashtra government and the state was committed to extend full support to the project.

"Boeing will be accorded all the assistance they need for this project by the chief minister. This is as per the agreement and the MADC will stand by whatever the chief minister may decide," assured Sinha.

Keskar said Boeing was in touch with officials in the ministry of civil aviation and the Maharashtra government. "Boeing is a world-class $60-billion company and will go about the project professionally. We do not get involved in such issues of land availability," he clarified. He said the project was on the drawing board stage and once the location had been decided further work will go into designing the facility.

He recalled that when Boeing had evinced interest in setting up the facility here, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had offered full support to the company.

"We signed a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government and whatever plans Boeing comes up with it will be in consultation with the chief minister and the ministry of civil aviation," said Keskar.

He said that a team from Boeing had been shown several sites and was engaged in preparing a detailed report. Once the report is finished, the location would be known.

"Even after zeroing in on the location we will wait till the joint venture company between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the MADC gets going. Only then will we start construction work," Keskar, an alumni of Nagpur-based Viswesaraiya Regional College of Engineering (now, Viswesaraiya National Institute of Technology) told a local English daily.