Tata Group, which started India’s fi rst airline in the 1930s, is planning a foray into the manufacture of aircraft components for exports, according to a report in the Times of India.

The group is acquiring land at a special economic zone (SEZ) in Nagpur for setting up the component manufacturing plant. Incidentally, US aircraft maker Boeing too is setting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at the Nagpur SEZ.

Tata Motors ED, Finance Praveen Kadle said that the company has plans for the aerospace sector but maintained that nothing has been fi nalised as yet. Maharashtra Airport Development Company vice chairman and MD RC Sinha, whose firm is in charge of putting up the Nagpur SEZ project, said that a Tata company is taking up the land for aircraft component business.

The Tata Group started Tata Airlines in 1932 and it was taken over by the government that turned it into Air India.