Wadia group, SIA ink 30$ mln pact for MRO services in India

Mumbai, July 26 (UNI) The Wadia group and SIA engineering company today signed an Memorandum of Understanding with an investment of 30 million dollars, to offer maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services in India.

Under the JV, the Wadia group will hold 49 per cent of the stake while the remaining would be held by SIA engineering company, which will also manage the greenfield facility to start off in November this year.

Talking to reporters Managing Director of GoAir Jeh Wadia said, the Wadia group is committed to the development of Civil Aviation and related infrastructure in India.

''We started with GoAir airline in November 2005, and today's MoU with SIA is another milestone in this regard,'' the 33-year old scion of the Wadia group added.

This will be the first company providing MRO facility to all the aircraft mainly concentrating on line maintenance in India and this will obviously benefit the other airlines who would not have to send their aircrafts to Singapore for maintenance, he added.

This will obviously reduce the transport expenditure and will benefit the low cost airlines, he said.

''Lack of world class MRO facility was a major hurdle in India and with this new venture the Wadia group and SIA engineering will significantly contribute towards supporting increased traffic both internationally and domestic,'' Mr Wadia added.

Chief Executive of SIA Willim Tan said the ongoing liberalisation drive of India's aviation sector is boosting demand for passenger and cargo traffic and obviously support of modern world class MRO facilities.

The proposed JV, which plans to initially offer line maintenance service at eight major airports and expanding to more airports subsequently aims to be the preferred line maintenance service provider of both narrow and wide body aircraft in India.

He said there are also plans to develop the JV into a centre of excellence for airframe maintenance of A320 and B737NG airliners and the establishment of a leading aerospace engineering training institute for which a proper place would be identified to train engineers and technicians.

The JV will have to employ 100 people immediately and by 2010 their staff for MRO will reach to 500. Mr Wadia admitted that with this facility, the number of GoAir engineer staff will reduce.

Mr Wadia did not give any specific figure about the market prospects of this JVC but said since this would be the first company in India offering MRO, it would have a huge scope.

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