Nagpur, April 13, 2006 (PTI)

The US aircraft manufacturing company 'Boeing' is likely to finalise its decision of setting up a maintenance hub in the city by end of this month, according to Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC).

"The Chairman of the US based Boeing is in India and the company team has visited only Nagpur to explore the possibilities of setting up a full fledged maintenance repair hub at the multi Modal International Passenger and Cargo Hub (MIHAN), in city," MADC Managing Director, R C Sinha, told reporters, today.

Sinha said though some other states were also keen on inviting Boeing to set up hub in their states, the three- member team including, their country manager for India, Dinesh Keskar and two others visited city some time back.

Logistically Nagpur is the ideal location for setting up Boeing project, Sinha claimed adding this was verified by the team that visited the city.

There were other states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which extended invitation to Boeing but our impression is that the company may select Nagpur as their maintenance hub, Sinha asserted.

To a question, Sinha admitted that the Dr Ambedkar international airport has not yet been handed over to MADC by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), despite several letters, reminders and commitments.