India’s premier aircraft
manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will have an order book of Rs
2.5 lakh crore in the next six months making it one of the leading players in
the aerospace industry in the South Asia region.
Addressing a press conference here
at the Aero India 2025 venue on Tuesday, HAL CMD Dr D K Sunil said that the
company has received orders worth Rs 55,000 crore in the nine months of this
fiscal year and it is expecting to close orders worth another Rs 1.2 lakh crore
in next five to six months taking the total order book to Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
“We are actively pursuing two major
contracts.
One is for 97 Light Combat Aircrafts (Tejas) and 156 Light Combat
Helicopters (Prachanda) helicopters for Prachanda. Both are in the advanced
stages (of negotiations). We are hoping to close them in the next 5-6 months,”
Sunil said.
He said the HAL has ramped up its
production capacity to meet the orders flow. Three units for manufacturing
LCAs, two in Bengaluru and one in Nasik in Maharashtra, have been set up. “With
these three units we target to manufacture 26 aircrafts by 2026,” he said.
“We
have also partnered with private players like Tatas and L&T to increase our
production capacity,” he added.
The HAL also stepped up its efforts
for exports. Besides continuing export efforts with the existing client Gayana,
the HAL has been actively pursuing dates in Malaysia for the Dorniers.
“We are
also in talks with the Philippines and North America,” he added.
Sunil said that HAL has been
spending a whopping Rs 2,500 crore on research and development every year to
continuously improve and upgrade its products and keep the order flow growing.
“While Tejas, LCA led our order books till now, in the next decade LCA-2,
Indian Multi Role Helicopters, fifth generation’s Advanced Medium Combat
Aircraft along with newer products like UCAPs will lead HALs order brook
growth,” the CMD said.