Boeing is looking for a overseas firm to partner it in its proposed maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in India, the Mint paper said on Wednesday. The planned $185 million facility is being set up in Nagpur in western Maharastra state with state-owned Air-India, which had ordered 68 Boeing aircraft in 2005.

“The only two companies that have elaborate aircraft maintenance structure in the county are Air-India and Indian, so we are looking for foreign partners,” Dinesh Keskar, vice-president of sales for commercial airplanes at Boeing, told the paper.

“We are in talks and a decision is expected before the ground-breaking ceremony (in July),” he said.

Boeing has said it expects India would need 856 new jet aircraft worth more than $72 billion over the next 20 years.

Separately, state-owned Indian [IA.UL], which has ordered 42 Airbus aircraft, is setting up an MRO facility with Airbus and Bangalore-based Jupiter Aviation and Logistics.
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