duke aviation, nagpur

Set within the ambitious MIHAN SEZ in Nagpur—India’s emerging hub for aerospace and logistics—the proposed Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility for Duke Aviation Limited is conceived as a comprehensive aviation services campus, reflecting the future of aircraft maintenance infrastructure in the region.

Planned over an expansive 39.26-acre site, the facility is strategically located adjacent to Boeing’s new Asian MRO hub, positioning it as a vital node in the subcontinent’s aviation ecosystem. The program envisions a state-of-the-art, integrated environment that brings together all aspects of aircraft care under one roof—from routine servicing and heavy maintenance to refurbishment, painting, component manufacturing, and testing.

A key design challenge was to accommodate a diverse fleet, including wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-400. To this end, a series of Pre-Engineered Buildings (PEBs) with varying clear heights and spans were deployed to house hangars, workshops, and specialized engineering bays. Recognizing the potential visual fragmentation of this modular approach, the architectural concept evolved around a unifying outer envelope—a bold, cohesive skin that binds the disparate structures into a singular architectural expression, signifying the facility’s technological sophistication.

The multi-storey corporate block—housing administrative offices, executive suites, engineering design studios, and client interface spaces—anchors the complex and is located centrally at the rear. Surrounded by a curated landscape buffer, this block offers visual and spatial relief from the heavy-duty industrial zones while providing a premium, representational front for visiting international stakeholders and partners.

Functional zoning was critical to the overall planning—ensuring seamless airside and landside operations, controlled movement of aircraft and components, and safe segregation between high-security zones and public-facing areas. Warehousing, logistics, and part storage were placed for optimal connectivity to the hangars, while testing zones and specialized workshops were distributed to allow both independence and cross-functional synergy.

In its entirety, the Duke Aviation facility is envisioned not just as a maintenance depot, but as a next-generation aerospace campus—merging industrial efficiency with architectural coherence, and setting a new benchmark in the design of large-scale aviation infrastructure in India.