Indian and aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will team up with European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus Industrie, to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul venture at an estimated cost of over Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
The venture will be spread over two sites -- Nashik and Mumbai. Earlier, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing Company had decided to set up its MRO in Nagpur.
Indian and HAL will hold less than 50 per cent in the proposed MRO joint venture with one of Airbus' subsidiary company.
The investment in the MRO venture is part of the commitment made by Airbus to the government, following the Rs 10,000-crore (Rs 100-billion) aircraft order by Indian.
Indian CMD Viswapati Trivedi, said the proposed MRO will not be a captive facility and will offer maintenance to all Airbus family aircraft.
However, Trivedi declined to divulge the investment details. "It is too premature to comment on the investment front,
but we are taking up the project in full swing."
"It will be easy to kick start MRO activities with available infrastructure in Mumbai while the joint venture can leverage advantage of land and expertise of HAL at Nashik," sources said.
Significantly, Indian and HAL will restrict themselves to hold less than 50 per cent. "The idea is to run this airframe MRO as a professionally managed company, without any interference from the majority promoters," sources said.
Earlier, Airbus and CFM had fixed counter trade and off sets at 40 per cent, which will result in increase of trade opportunities worth $145 million for India.
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