Aerospace SEZ takes off in Belgaum

India’s aerospace engineering and manufacturing segment took a leap with the launch of a 300-acre aerospace special economic zone (SEZ) in Belgaum in north Karnataka. The event’s significance can be gauged by the presence of not just a host of politicians of every hue, but also senior representatives of numerous aircraft and aircraft component makers, including Boeing, EADS (Airbus), Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin. Dinesh Keskar, president, Boeing India, said this is the only facility of its kind outside HAL, Bangalore. The SEZ, promoted by Quest Global, will be a one-stop shop for everything—from engineering design services to manufacture of aircraft parts and subsystems. The SEZ has seen an investment of Rs 150 crore from Quest, and already hosts three operations—engineering services facility, precision machining facility and a sheet metal facility, the last being a joint venture with Canada’s Magellan Aerospace. On Saturday, three more MoUs were announced. One was with with Belgian aerospace company SABCA to manufacture metallic parts and assembly work for the Airbus A350. This deal is expected to be worth $100 million over the next 10 years. A second MoU with Magellan will evaluate setting up a dedicated facility to manufacture components and sub-assemblies for aero engines. The third MoU was with Farinia Geie, a French foundry and forgings company. Magellan VP Konrad Hahnelt said Quest had done some complex work for Magellan which had encouraged the company to expand its relationship. “Setting up the kind of processing facility we have in the SEZ is also complex, because such facilities have to get numerous approvals from aircraft makers,” he said. Quest was founded in the US by two Indians, Arvind Melligeri and Ajit Prabhu, and does most of its engineering services out of India.