NEW DELHI: Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), which is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, has set the ball rolling for the next five years with orders worth Rs 8,000 crore to be delivered during this period.
According to the defence sector public sector undertaking (PSU), these orders involve making various missiles for the armed forces. This is expected to further swell to Rs 25,000 crore in the next 4-5 years even as it ramps up production of next-generation missiles.
According to Siddharth Mishra, chairman and managing director of BDL, as of now the bulk of the firms orders are from the country’s armed forces, including 9M113 Konkurs missiles, INVAR missiles and the MRSAM missile jointly developed by India’s DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries. These existing orders will be executed by 2023-24.
Mishra said the order book also include exports. “We are looking at exporting to friendly countries. As of now, we have got clearance to export the Advanced Lightweight Torpedo, Varunashtra torpedo,” he said.
The company has already created a storage facility and a missile testing facility with an administrative block at Ibrahimpatnam.
It will spend `90 crore to improve infrastructure facilities at Ibrahimpatnam and is also in the process of setting up of a facility at Amaravati in Maharashtra entailing an investment of about `300 crore. “BDL has made land acquisition and all clearances are in place. Once we secure orders, the facility would be developed,” the CMD explained.
Listed on the BSE in March 2018, the company had closed 2017-18 with revenues of Rs 4,586 crore. However, its revenues came down to Rs 3,069 crore last fiscal as order book additions were slower than expected.
The company is currently working on collaborating with various original equipment manufacturers for technology transfers related to next-generation missiles. A pact with British firm Thales is already through for its ‘Starstreak missiles’. “We are now making second-generation missiles and plan to go for third-generation ones soon. The international market has players making fourth and fifth-generation missiles,” Mishra pointed out.