After much delay, Boeing’s largest aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul facility in Asia, would be operational by January. The site is almost 95 per cent complete and will come up at the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN).

The maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facility is spread over 50 acres and will be able to service two commercial aircraft simultaneously.

In the mid-2000s, when Air India had placed an order for 68 aircraft with Boeing, it had committed that an MRO would be set up in India to service the aircraft. In 2009 it decided to spend $100 million on developing the MRO site at Nagpur.

The MRO is located inside the special economic zone at MIHAN, which is managed by Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd (MADC).

General Manager (Marketing) of MADC, S Sittarasu told BusinessLine that the project site, especially the 2 km taxiway, which connects the site with the runway, was facing problems of land acquisition. However, with the recent intervention by the office of the new Chief Minister, that problem has been solved and the MRO would be functional in the coming year, he said.

Sittarasu said that once the MRO becomes operational, Boeing will train all personnel and hand over the site to Air India. The MRO has the potential capacity to service other airlines as well, which could become a good revenue source for Air India. Till date about ₹450 crore has been spent by Boeing at the site, he said.

He added that C-level checks, which are the most advanced checks on an aircraft, would be carried out Nagpur.

Today, only basic MRO facilities are available in India. For advanced safety checks, the planes have to taken to locations such as Dubai, Singapore or Sri Lanka.

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