New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) In a big boost to ‘Make-in-India’, the Ministry of Defence paved the way for procurement of 83 indigenous Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ for the Indian Air Force on Wednesday.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved procurement of 83 Tejas fighters for the IAF.
The proposal will now be placed for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
The DAC has also approved for acquisition of indigenous defence equipment for about Rs 1,300 crore. The proposals were for procurement of Aerial Fuses and Twin-Dome Simulators for Hawk Mk32 aircraft for the IAF.
The first meeting of Acquisition Wing of DAC after separation of duties between Department of Defence (DoD) and Department of Military Affairs (DMA) was held on Wednesday. The Acquisition Wing being the secretariat of the DAC would be overall charge of the capital acquisition process.
Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ is indigenously designed by Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
While orders of 40 Tejas aircraft had been placed with HAL in initial configurations, the council paved the way for procurement of 83 of the more advanced Mk1A version of the aircraft from HAL by finalising contractual and other issues.
“This procurement will be a major boost to ‘Make in India’ as the aircraft is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with participation of several local vendors apart from HAL,” the Ministry of Defence said.
“The DAC also approved an amendment to the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 to enable review by a costing committee of bids submitted by joint ventures of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs)/Ordnance Factory Board (OFB)/DRDO,” the ministry said.
This will bring about more transparency in costs and compress the timelines for negotiation of the contract, the ministry added.
–IANS
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