After bagging aircraft orders worth about $20 billion from India [ Images ], US major Boeing on Wednesday announced its commitment to invest almost $185 million to develop aviation-related projects and facilities in the country.

Announcing that his company was also committed to invest a total of $1.7 billion in offsets, Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president (sales), Boeing Commercial Airplanes', said the firm would invest up to $100 million for a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Nagpur, and up to $75 million for a flight crew training centre and $10 million for initial pilot training.

He said on the sidelines of the Aero India show here that there was a tremendous opportunity for Boeing and Indian companies to work together on a multitude of projects and business initiatives, especially the shortage of pilots, airport capacity management and creation of a large skilled maintenance workforce and MRO facilities.

Keskar said Boeing was eyeing the domestic air cargo sector, which had expanded at an average annual growth rate of over 10 per cent.