Bengaluru: 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.
