India on Thursday invited American business to invest in the burgeoning aviation sector, saying there is a huge potential for investment of up to $ 130 billion over the next 10 to 15 years.

Maintaining that India’s air passenger traffic would rise to 260 million by 2020, Civil Aviation Secretary Mr Nasim Zaidi said private investment so far in the sector has been about $ six billion and the country would require $ 130 billion worth of further investment over the next 10-15 years.

American companies should explore the wealth of opportunities in the areas ranging from airport modernisation and aerospace to MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) and cargo, he said while inaugurating the third US-India Aviation Summit here.

At the event, India and the US signed the Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness (IPA) agreement that would open up the huge market for indigenously developed aeronautical products in the US and the world over. The pact provides for airworthiness technical cooperation between the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and aviation regulator DGCA.

The pact, a part of Indo-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), was signed by Director General of Civil Aviation Mr E K Bharat Bhushan and Mr Dorenda Baker, Director, Aircraft Certification Service of the FAA.

Noting that huge investment opportunities also existed in the airport modernisation exercise underway in India, Zaidi said “after successful implementation of public private partnership (PPP) in the development of six major and 35 non-metro airports, we have identified 30 more airports to be developed under the joint venture or PPP modes.”

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