Tirupati: Canada keen to set up MRO centre at Tirupati airport

Tirupati : In a major step towards establishing the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hub at Tirupati airport, Canada Aviation Company has come forward to examine the basic infrastructure at the airport for setting up the centre.

Earlier, identifying the potential of spiritual city, the Union government has designated it out of the eight airports (Chandigarh, Delhi, Begumpet, Juhu in Mumbai, Bhopal, Chennai and Kolkata are the other seven) in the country for the development of MRO infrastructure and it was also decided to develop this infrastructure at Tirupati airport in the first phase itself. The growing air traffic, advantageous geographical location, workforce availability and ancillary industry support are the major factors to transform Tirupati into an MRO hub. Large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), MRO service providers, parts dealers and aerospace parts and spares producers are all part of the MRO ecosystem.

MRO services at Tirupati can handle current traffic and distribute the workload of new fleet that airlines have deployed to meet rising demand. According to the ministry, Tirupati MRO can snag the domestic market’s share of existing outsourced MRO services.

The Invest India meet held in Hyderabad last year, showcased Tirupati airport’s potential as an MRO hub for aircraft servicing while several investors have shown interest in investing in this facility. Now, the Canada Aviation Company representatives along with those from Invest India have visited Tirupati airport and took stock of various parameters. They also visited the nearby electronic manufacturing cluster.

Later, the representatives met Tirupati MP Dr M Gurumoorthy, who was instrumental in making the Ministry of Civil Aviation choose Tirupati along with seven other airports for the purpose.

The MP told them that efforts were in full swing to establish the MRO centre in Tirupati which will take the development to new leaps. The Canada Aviation Company will send their proposals to the Central government and it is expected that it will become a reality in another six months. He said it will lead to increased employment avenues for the engineering students.