Bengal wooing Boeing to Maintenance hub

Kolkata, Jun 13 (UNI) The West Bengal government trying to persuade US aircraft company Boeing to set up a Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) hub here.

Industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen, who was in a week-long tour to US with chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb to woo investors, told reporters that he met Boeing representative Jean Pritchard in Washington and offered land and related infrastructure.

He said the state government would lose no time in ascertaining Boeing's requirements.

States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were also in the race to get the project, he informed.

He said Boeing has not formally announced its decision of having the MRO hub in Nagpur as announced earlier by Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

He said Boeing can have full or part of MRO activities in the state.

The state can talk to Airport Authorities of India (AAI) if Boeing wants to set up the hub near the airport, he said.

Sen and Deb met officials of the US Trade Development Agency during the week-long visit as part of a delegation led by Union Minister of State for Industry Aswini Kumar.

He said the USTDA would post a representative at the US Consulate here from next month indicating that US is considering West Bengal as an investment destination.

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