Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), the diversified business group, intends to set up a 250-acre special economic zone (SEZ) catering to the aerospace sector near the Bangalore International Airport.

The M&M group will build the SEZ under a public private partnership (PPP) model.

Mahindra Lifespaces, the infrastructure and real estate arm of the $7.1-billion Mahindra Group, is in preliminary dialogue with the Karnataka government for developing the aerospace SEZ.

M&M, which forayed into the aviation sector with the acquisition of two companies in Australia to manufacture aircraft, recently opened a new component-making facility at Malur on the outskirts of Bangalore. The Karnataka government has plans of setting up the second SEZ focused on the aviation sector.

The first facility has already come up in Belgaum, which is an aerospace engineering and manufacturing SEZ by QuEST Global.

The Karnataka government signed MoUs with a couple of companies who have shown plans of investing in the aerospace sector at the SEZ in Devanahalli.

BEML is planning a Rs316-crore facility in the designated zone to provide design & manufacturing services in aircraft components, sub-assemblies and MRO activities. Dynamatic Technologies plans to invest Rs465-crore to set up aerospace component unit and Starracheckert Machine Tools also plans to invest Rs127-crore for the same.

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