India will not have to wait too long for a Boeing aircraft designed and manufactured in the subcontinent, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the planemaker’s engineering center in Bengaluru on Friday.
At the event, which was also attended by senior Boeing executives including Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Pope, Modi stressed the need to build an aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in India.
“Given that there is so much potential in India, we need to rapidly build an aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in the country,” Modi said.
The company’s largest facility outside of the United States, the Boeing India Engineering & Technology Center (BIETC) in the capital city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, will be dedicated to research and development.
Although the site spans 43 acres, the business said it has invested $200 million in it; however, it did not disclose how many people will be employed at the facility. Across all of its centers, Boeing now employs over 6,000 workers in India.
Boeing has witnessed a surge in interest for its jets in India, currently the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, with travel demand outstripping the supply of planes.
On Thursday, the aircraft manufacturer received orders for 150 737 MAX narrowbody jets from Akasa Air, India’s youngest carrier.
In an exclusive interview with the news agency last year, India’s civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said it was time for Boeing and rival Airbus to consider setting up jetliner assembly in the country.
Boeing has an alliance with India’s Tata Group to produce AH-64 Apache helicopter fuselages and 737 aircraft vertical fin structures.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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