Work on AI engineering base to begin on March 1

Civil works on Air India's much talked about engineering base will take off finally with the inauguration of the project on March 1. The Rs 70-crore project will be inaugurated by chief minister VS Achuthanandan. The state government had allotted 6.07 acre of land free of cost to Air India, which is fully funding the project.

It is expected that the first phase of the engineering base would be completed in a year's time and the second in another six months.

One of the delays in starting the project had been due to the problems involving demolition of the buildings housing the Trivandrum Rubber Works (TRW). HA Munaff, who heads the Thiruvananthapuram operations of Air India, had at press conference, said the shifting of heavy machinery from TRW was being executed at a fast pace and was expected to be over by the month-end.

The engineering base, coming up close to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, when it becomes operational, will serve the Boeing 737-800 series aircraft used by Air India initially.

It is expected that the facility would be upgraded to service all types of aircraft at a later stage.