Private firms to build military cargo planes
Centre approved a Rs 9,000 crore tender to provide five fleet support ships for the Navy
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Saturday cleared defence procurement proposals worth over Rs 21,000 crore and also included a project for the production of transport aircraft which is open only to Indian private sector companies.
The Centre also approved a Rs 9,000 crore tender to provide five fleet support ships for the Navy, for which a request for proposal will be issued to all public and private sector shipyards.
In keeping with its promise to promote the domestic military industry, most of the proposals cleared would involve only Indian public and private sector firms and are aimed at increasing the indigenisation of military hardware, sources said.
Chairing a meeting of the Defence Acquis-ition Council, defence minister Arun Jaitley said, “There are many proposals in the pipeline and, today, we have tried to expedite quite a few of them.”
A proposal for the supply of 32 HAL-built advanced light helicopters Dhruv to the Coast Guard and the Navy at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore was also okayed.