“Our Nagpur SEZ facility (located next to the airport) currently has four hangars which, along with the entire infrastructure, was built in 2021 at a cost of about ₹450 crore. We will be building six more hangars in phase II and III for which we will invest upwards of ₹550 cr-600 crore. The capacity will be tripled and we will provide MRO service for wide body aircraft also,” said Indemar group director Prajay Patel.

The capital expenditure plan is to be made over a period of six years and the work on the second phase will start late this year or early 2025 calendar year.

The company is also planning to become the first major Indian MRO to enter the component repair shop space for commercial airliners. And eventually, it aims to have a final assembly line for helicopters and fix wing aircraft. “We will start component repair this year,” Patel said.

The MRO completed the major check (C check) for its 100th aircraft, an IndiGo Airbus A320, on Friday when the facility, which opened in 2021, was formally inaugurated by Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Rahul Bhatia, co-founder of IndiGo, and IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers were also present at the occasion.

At the inauguration, Scindia announced that it is important for India’s MRO space to grow given the fleet expansion. “MRO space has tremendous possibilities in India. The sector growing by leaps and bounds… I have urged companies to set up MRO in Jewar and Tirupati,” Scindia said, adding that Boeing will be inaugurating its second largest engineering and design facility in Bengaluru.

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Published: 12 Jan 2024, 07:34 PM IST