The Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati inaugurated air India’s state-of-the-art facility for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. The MRO facility has been developed by Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India. The facility will exclusively serve the Air India fleet and will provide full Aircraft base maintenance service, line maintenance, engineering and technical support, component and full material support, aircraft engine services and technical training services on all major aircraft types. Speaking on the occasion H R Jagannath, CEO, AIESL, said that Air India has a great potential in MRO facility. More support from the Govt of India can bring about more improvements in the country in terms of revenue generation and manpower development and utilization in the country as we are one of the biggest MRO in the region. Rohit Nandan, CMD, Air India, said, “We are pursuing the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Prime Minister of India and this MRO unit is a very strong platform in that direction. Air India has always been in the front whenever there has been a need by the country like the recent evacuations from Yemen and relief operations to Nepal and development of the MRO facility is also a very important field in supporting the development of engineering infrastructure in the nation. At one point of time it was difficult to construct the facility that has come up at Hyderabad as Air India also had financial difficulties but with the support and motivation from the government and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, today we are standing in the state-of-the-art facility and looking ahead to playing much bigger roles.” The Minister while addressing the gathering said that his government is doing everything possible in removing the hurdles in the way of Air India but it takes time and that he is confident that it will provide a better platform for Air India to compete at the international level. He also mentioned that he is very proud of the facility that Air India has developed in-house in taking forward the Prime Minister’s initiative of ‘Make in India. Developed with an investment of Rs 79.20 crore, the unit will provide the capacity to service the world’s contemporary aircraft types. It can accommodate two narrow body aircraft at a time or one wide body aircraft. The hangar covers an area of 9000 sq. meters and has a height of 24 meters. It features an open bay that is capable of providing MRO services for such next-generation, wide-body aircraft as the Boeing 787/ 777/ 747 and Airbus A320/321/319 aircraft AIESL has received the mandatory DGCA certification to carry out MRO and also testing of aircraft, engines and components for the Air India fleet. The MRO will service Air India’s present fleet of 125 aircraft which is likely to grow in the future.