Disinvestment of HAL will happen: govt

Government today said the process to disinvest shares in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is on but acknowledged that the Indian Air Force is dissatisfied with the defence PSU for not sticking to delivery schedule.

"The will of the Government is there for disinvestment. But it's going through its procedures", Union Minister of State for Defence, M M Pallam Raju told reporters in response to questions on the sidelines of a function here.

Sources in the Bangalore-headquartered company said the Book Running Lead Managers and the Legal Advisors have been selected for the divestment process.

"HAL is gearing up for the disinvestment process.The exact timing of the IPO would be decided by the Ministry of Defence/ Department of Disinvestment", an HAL official told PTI.

Raju said some times HAL was not able to meet the expectations of the primary user of its products, IAF, because it's handling "so many programmes". "They (HAL) may not be able to productionise on time".

(Delay in_ productionisation "has not been entirely to the satisfaction of the Air Force", he said.

It's because of the multiplicity of programme not because of the lack of competencies or facilities. "It's more a question of project management. Need of the hour is greater project management", the Minister said.

The process of productionisation needed to be speeded up. Some times "small decisions" are referred to the Ministry while it could be handled by HAL itself,he said.