Bengaluru: The State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and L&T consortium have won a Rs 860 crore deal from NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to build five PSLV (polar satellite launch vehicle) rockets. The HAL-L&T consortium emerged as the L1 bidder, which marked the industry's maiden foray into end-to-end production of PSLVs. The NSIL is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
HAL, India's aerospace and defence company headquartered in Bengaluru, will now be involved for manufacturing five rockets of PSLV, considered the versatile workhorse launch vehicle of the country. The HAL-L&T consortium had emerged as the technically qualified and the L1 bidder to undertake production of PSLV in the techno-commercial evaluation of three bids, sources said.
"We have now signed the service level agreement with the industry for production," said an official of NSIL, a central public sector enterprise under the Department of Space (DoS) and commercial arm of ISRO. "Maybe in less than two years, we (the 52:48 HAL-L&T consortium) will be able to deliver the first rocket from the industry consortium, fully built by the industry, with appropriate hand-holding from ISRO," the official said.