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Author:siddhant vijay
professional real estate advisor at Nagpur, Maharashtra.
professional real estate advisor at Nagpur, Maharashtra.
MRO at NAGPUR
The maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) unit
will be a partnership with Air India to form a greenfield venture. We
will be coming up with the best of resources and are also original
equipment manufacturers of the aircraft. The facility is expected to
attract clients from the world over. The facility will have a large
scope of employing locallytrained Indians rather than expatriates. We
will have to keep the costs low in order to be globally competitive.
As a result, a majority of locals will have to be employed in order to
maintain overheads on account of payments. Although it would open new
vistas for candidates trained in Nagpur or the region, the jobs would
be open for any other qualified person. I have been also talking with
my alma mater, the VNIT, for providing inputs on manpower requirement.
However, one must keep in mind that in this set-up, Boeing would be
needing highly qualified personnel. It is not like a multinational
company opening a fast food joint. At the same time, it will not be
engineers alone that would be required in the MRO. There will be
vacancies for other employees to cater to needs like general
management, information technology and so on. As far the airlines in
the country are concerned, it is a win-win situation indeed. The
airliners will no longer have to send its pilots to long distance
destinations abroad, thereby saving fuel and time. As far as Nagpur is
concerned, one of the major advantages is the second runway projected
in the master plan. As work increases, the MRO may need a second
runway. We would initially start with catering to the Boeing 737 and
would later follow with advanced aircraft like 777 and so on. The work
on the cargo hub project also seems to be going on the right
direction. I was here less than five weeks ago and could see a lot of
facilities such has trains and road and other progress being under
way. (The author, who studied in Nagpur, is the senior vicepresident
(sales) of Boeing and in-charge of the MRO project) The Aircraft
Giant’s Proposed MRO Unit Holds Much Promise For Mihan Promoters As
Well As Other Investors Ramu Bhagwat and Shishir Arya | TNN This is
among the biggest greenfield investments proposed in the city that may
help the region’s economy. Two years ago, civil aviation minister
Praful Patel announced aircraft maker Boeing Inc.’s plans for
investing $ 100 million in Nagpur by setting up an aircraft
maintenance repair and overhaul depot here. That Nagpur-grown Dinesh
Keskar, the senior vicepresident (sales) of this mammoth company is
in-charge of the project, brought further cheers. The project would be
a joint venture between the national carrier Air India and Boeing. The
move led businessmen, realtors and investors to redraw their plans in
the light of Boeing investment in the Mihan project. To be honest,
Mihan which was also shrouded in uncertainty, got a big boost with the
announcement. But two years after the initial euphoria, the Boeing MRO
is yet to take off from the planning stage. There were hiccups and
apprehensions that Boeing may decide to set the MRO somewhere else,
but it was announced at last that “Nagpur is the destination of
choice.” Thanks to a rider with $11.63 billion aircraft deal between
Air India and Boeing, the city also got a good bargain. It was one of
the stipulations for Boeing that it had to set up such a facility
anywhere in India, if it wanted the order. “There is nothing to
worry. The project is on. We are fulfilling various requirements
before starting the actual work,” Keskar told ToI The MRO would
activate a whole gamut of economic activity, provide jobs to local
engineers and also cut the maintenance cost for airliners. It would
reduce the flying distance for Boeing planes operating in India. As
the repairs will be done at home, it will save on airlines’ time,
fuel and man days for the mandatory overhaul of aircraft. The final
agreement between Boeing and Maharahstra Airport Development Company
(MADC) is yet to be signed. A deal has to be signed with MADC since
this company is setting up the special economic zone (SEZ) where
Boeing has been allotted land. Interestingly, the land has been
offered at concessional rate given the huge investment it would bring
in. There has been a series of parleys between the MADC and Boeing so
far. When contacted, MADC’s chairman-cum-managing director R C Sinha
said, “Boeing are now conducting a due diligence over the land. The
company has several departments and each is examining various
issues.” Keskar, on the other hand, avoided to comment directly on
the time-frame for the signing of the deal. He said work on testing
the soil conditions is under way at the site. “The land has been
already earmarked in the area, and teams are testing the soil
conditions and other requirements for setting up the MRO,” he said.
Soil condition is one of the major criterion for such a set-up. A
Boeing 747 weighs several tonnes and there is always a risk of the
ground sinking due to its weight. There are also apprehensions that an
ongoing political ego tussle may be one of the reasons for the delay.
However, Keskar stressed that Nagpur has been chosen on its merit
which includes factors like dry weather conditions, the SEZ status and
the attached Mihan project. A BOON FOR THE REGION The deal may not be
sealed yet, but the proposed Boeing MRO unit is generating a lot of
excitement 100 Million dollars expected to be invested in the city by
aircraft major Boeing Inc for setting up the MRO unit 75 Acres have
been allotted to Boeing by Maharashtra Airport Development Company HOW
MRO WILL HELP The MRO provide jobs to local engineers The set-up will
also cut the maintenance cost for airliners It would reduce flying
distance for Boeing planes operating in India Maintenance, repair,
overhaul?! Aircraft maintenance sector is poised for a big leap in the
coming years as Indian aviation companies realise the need for
scheduled maintenance instead of only short-term emergency repairs,
which was the norm in the past. The airline companies have realised
that unless aircraft are overhauled periodically, their age reduces
and they are more prone to technical snags. An aircraft goes through
the ‘A’ check about once a month and a ‘C’ check after every
one-and-half year. ‘C’ check involves a thorough inspection of the
aircraft structure with system tests. The general overhaul of
aircraft, known as ‘D’ check, is done once in five to ten years
depending upon the age and flying hours. This exercise takes months
for completion for a large aircraft like Boeing 747. The ‘C’ and
‘D’ checks are done in a maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO)
depot. A ‘C’ check costs around Rs 2 crore for Boeing 737. The
figure for Boeing 747 can go up to Rs 6 crore. The state-run airlines
Indian has workshops in Mumbai and Delhi for carrying out ‘C’
checks. However, due to capacity constraints, aircraft have to be
often sent to Korea and Germany for major engine repairs. Indian has
placed orders for large number of aircraft with Boeing. As a part of
the deal, the aircraft manufacturer has decided to set up a MRO depot
in the country. The facility entails an investment of over Rs 400
crore. Many private airlines have also placed orders with Boeing for
new aircraft. These aircraft will also be repaired and overhauled in
the Nagpur MRO.
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