"The board of approval (BoA) for special economic zone under the ministry of commerce has approved the proposal of Reliance Aerostructure for the development of the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park (DAPP) with related infrastructure facilities and services at Mihan, Nagpur. With the BoA's nod, Aerospace Park which is spread over 289 acres, will become the largest greenfield aerospace park in the country," defense sources told to Sputnik.
The company will start construction of the first phase of the two-phased project by the end of this month with production starting in the first quarter of 2018. The first phase, which will be spread over 104 acres, will include the production of aircraft, electronic warfare systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for commercial aircraft and complete eco-system of tiered suppliers to support these large projects. With a proposed investment of $977 million, the park is expected to generate more than 10,000 highly skilled jobs.
Under the contract, $31.25 million will be in direct investment term which is expected to arrive from France's Dassault via its Dassault Reliance Aviation Ltd (a joint venture between both the companies) by end of this year. "Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited Joint Venture is presently creating the state-of-the-art integrated eco-structure to execute the $ 4.42 billion offset program linked to the sale of 36 Rafale fighter jets," the source added.
Dassault Reliance JV has already shortlisted more than 200 vendors, mostly small and medium size enterprise to be part of the supply chain at DAAP.