Tata, Boeing to form joint venture in India

BIG VENTURE: Tata Industries Limited and Boeing Company have agreed on a plan to form a joint venture.

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New Delhi: American aircraft major Boeing on Thursday announced a decision to establish a joint venture with premier conglomerate Tatas to carry out defence-related aerospace component work and said it planned to make the promised Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility in Nagpur operational by 2009.

Tata Industries Limited and Boeing Company have agreed on a plan to form a joint venture company that will initially have over $500 million of defence-related aerospace component work in India for export to Boeing and its global customers, they said in a joint statement.

"This joint venture between Tata and Boeing is an important part of our strategy to build capabilities in defence and aerospace," Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said. Under the agreement, the proposed JV will be established by this June and begin work on building Boeing aerospace components shortly thereafter.

Manufacturing capabilities established within the JV firm would in later phases be leveraged across multiple Boeing programs, including the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition.

On the proposed MRO to be set up at Nagpur as a part of the offset for Air India acquiring 68 Boeing planes, US firm's President (India) Ian Thomas told reporters here, "we have certainly decided to make the MRO operational by 2009."

The US firm has committed to invest $100 million in the MRO project, besides investing additionally in a pilot training establishment for Air India as well as another for a school for Ab-Initio training for pilots.