HAL's order book expected to cross Rs one lakh crore next

State-run aerospace behemothHindustan Aeronautics Ltd on Thursday said its order book isexpected to cross Rs one lakh crore mark in the next year.

''The order book was about Rs 53,000 crore, if youadd Tejas (LCA) to it, it will cross Rs 80,000 crore, so thatis the order book as of now, and we are expecting two moreorders that is basically for LCH and HTT-40, coming up for thenext year,'' HAL CMD R Madhavan said.

Speaking to reporters here at the Aero India 2021,he said: ''We will be reaching Rs one lakh crore plus probablyby next year end...this year is quite comfortable for us,'' headded.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Airforce formallyissued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the HAL for its HTT-40turbo trainer, the company said.

''We will be making this HTT-40 initially fromBengaluru where it was designed, later it will go to Nasik forseries production..Basically it will start with 70 aircraft,we are looking at a total number of 106,'' Madhavan said to aquestion.

Madhavan said the company was quite sure aboutmeeting its targets both in terms of financial as well asoperational performance.

''We had issues with the COVID lockdown in the firsttwo quarters, the first quarter was almost washed out, but bythe third quarter we have recovered and even showing a growthover the last year,'' he said.

Regarding the Rs 48,000-crore order for 73 TejasMk-1A variants and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft,Madhavan said as per the contract HAL has to start deliveringin 36 months from now.

The first aircraft is expected to be delivered byMarch 2024.''The first delivery will be two aircraft orsomething, which will be ramped up to 16. The total supplytime post the first delivery is six years, that makes thetotal project time line of nine years. We will try to reduceit to somewhere around (by) one year.'' The company has started the process of integratingthe vendors into the system now itself so that they areprepared for delivering these aircraft after 36 months.

Responding to a question on private sectorcontribution, Madhavan said, as of today 463 vendors areinvolved which included MSMES and bigger companies.

''This number we expect to go up to 550 to 600 asmore and more MSMES will be coming in and pitching in,'' hesaid.

''As far as the order is concerned, if you remove thetax part of it, it is worth about Rs 36,000 crore (LCAcontract), out of which close to Rs 6,000 crore directly goesto MSMEs and as we are supplying ground support equipment andother things another Rs 3,000 crore is expected to go towardsIndian partners.'' Madhavan said the indigenous content in the aircraftis about 52 per cent and the company is looking at ways toincrease it in the raw materials and hike it to 65 per cent.

Giving a break-up of the cost components, the HALchairman said the cost for each fighter version of theaircraft will be Rs 309 crore and Rs 280 crore for thetrainer.

He said ''Rs 2,200 crore is ERV (Exchange RateVariation), customs and taxes is around Rs 7,000 crore, sothat makes it around Rs 9,000 crore... Rs 11,000 crore will beused for ground support equipment, spares and training aidsand manuals..If you remove all this the total order is aboutRs 25,000 crore.'' PTI KSU RS BNADMINISTRATOR BNADMINISTRATOR

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)