BEL expects Rs700 cr order for coastal surveillance

Bangalore-based Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the public sector defence behemoth, expects to secure contract for the first phase of the coastal surveillance system for Rs700-800 crore from the Coast Guard by next month, a top company official said.

“We are going ahead with the initiative, which we have taken on our own using internal funds, because this is very very crucial project for the country’s security,” Ashwani Kumar Datt, chairman and managing director, BEL said.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of CII’s National Quality Summit 2010, he said the company would be making a capital expenditure of Rs250-300 crore by end of the current fiscal on the project.

 

“Our order book position is good and it is at about Rs11,700 crore presently,” Datt said.

“We have done some preliminary work on instrumentation of power plants. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is yet to finalise the power plants with so many foreign players. When the contracts get signed, we should be doing some portion of nuclear power instrumentation. This is a new area with lot of things the company has to demonstrate beyond doubt of the reasons of safety. We have put some people there. It will take time but we are ready,” he said.

Datt said, as far as homeland security is concerned, the company was ready to do work at the higher end. The company was executing orders in the Supreme Court, Parliament, Reserve Bank of India and the Cabinet Secretariat among others. “We are also trying to do some research and development on making certain products and software, which basically will enable the country to have much more value addition to homeland security,” he said.

He said the BEL board recently cleared certain research and development projects. “We are trying to do technology development on certain modules for radars —both ground-based and airborne. We are trying to develop electronic warfare systems for certain specific additional abilities,” he added.

In the next few months, BEL will deliver what it has promised to its customers, the defence forces. The next order for Akash Missile System, order for Shilka, the main battle tank, which is a new initiative are expected. The company is also trying to complete the last trials for weapon locating radar and pick up an order for that, he said.

BEL expects to secure orders for Akash Missile System from the Indian Air Force (IAF) for additional six squadrons valued at Rs3,500 crore by March 2011, he said. The deliveries would be done by December 2011 for the first order and after that the company would begin work on the second order, which will be completed over a period of 36 months, Datt added.

Most exciting job over the remaining months of the current fiscal would be to achieve the stated target of Rs5,500 crore sales this year and also hopefully pick up another Rs5,000 crore worth of orders, he said.