HYDERABAD: In what could be seen as the Central government’s increasing focus on strengthening the country’s defence capabilities, city-based defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) on Monday announced that it expects an order of Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years, apart from the Rs 8,084 crore worth orders at hand.
Speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the PSU, Commodore Siddharth Mishra, CMD of BDL, said that as of now the bulk of the orders are from the country’s Armed forces which include 9M113 Konkurs missiles, INVAR missiles and the MRSAM missile which is jointly being developed by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries.
Mishra said the orders also include exports. “We are looking towards exporting to friendly countries. As of now, we have got clearance to export Advanced Lightweight Torpedo (TAL), Varunashtra torpedo.”
The defence PSU is also looking towards expansion and announced that they have created a storage facility and a missile testing facility with an administrative block at Ibrahimpatnam.
BDL plans to set up a facility at Amaravati in Maharashtra for manufacturing VSHORADS missiles. The facility will be established based on the orders and it is likely to cost Rs 300 crore.
The company has signed an MoU with Thales, UK for STARSTREAK missiles, apart from being in talks with various OEMs to get new technologies.
S Piramanayagam, Director (Finance), BDL, said “This financial year there was degrowth compared to the previous FY in 17-18. In the 2018-2019 FY, the company’s growth was at Rs 3,069 crore. However, in FY 17-18, it was at Rs 4059 crore.”
It is also exploring new technologies like Artificial Intelligence. The company recently had signed an MoU for setting up of a Centre of Excellence with IIIT-Hyderabad.