Construction activity at the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park at Mihan, Nagpur, is set to kick start by the end of this month, with the Commerce Ministry giving its approval for developing the park.

Reliance Defence is looking to invest ₹6,500 crore in the park.

The facility is set to host the first ‘Make in India’ defence project, since it will be home to the Dassault-Reliance Aerospace joint venture. France’s Dassault Aviation and Reliance Defence have teamed up in a 49:51 stake joint venture, to carry out the obligations and execute the ₹30,000-crore offset programme related to the sale of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

The park will also be home to the largest defence sector foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, with the French aircraft manufacturer slated to bring in the first tranche of FDI amounting to ₹200 crore by the month-end.

On July 3, the Ministry of Commerce granted approval to the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure arm Reliance Aerostructure as a co-developer of the park, confirmed a senior executive. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company is the nodal agency for developing the aerospace park.

A senior executive told BusinessLine that manufacturing at the site will start by the end of this year with the last approval falling in place. Some 50 people have already joined the company.

“For the last two months, we have people who are already training in France. They are part of the team, the lead managers at the site, and have been undergoing training with the Dassault team in France,” the executive told this newspaper.

Job creation

Phase I of the project is expected to result in the generation of more than 700 highly skilled direct jobs and 2,800 indirect jobs. The aerospace park will eventually generate more than 10,000 jobs, promoting the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ initiatives of the government.

The park is spread over 289 acres, and is set to become the largest greenfield aerospace park in the country.

Business at the aerospace park over a 30-year period is expected to exceed ₹2,00,000 crore under ‘Make in India’. “We are also working with many other companies and have multiple projects. All of this will contribute to the government's Make in India initiative,” an official pointed out.

Employee count too is expected to go up progressively over the next five years, with around 700 people employed just for Dassault’s single project. Since each project at the park will have its own requirement, overall the pool of skilled workers is expected to be quite large.

Apart from the Dassault-Reliance offset facility, the park will also be home to the proposed facilities of Thales, Daher and Strata, among others.

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