Kavveri Tele eyes defence orders

Kavveri Telecom, the Bangalore-based telecom products manufacturer, expects major Indian defence orders.

"At present we are involved with 12 projects involving electronic warfare and space projects by providing antennae and radio frequency (RF)-based products," Kavveri Telecom managing director C Shivakumar Reddy said here on Tuesday.

"Once the tests are completed in 2010, we expect substantial orders, and revenues thereafter," he added. The company, at present, has Rs 5 crore through defence supplies of Rs 100 crore.

Kavveri Telecom has initiated plans to double its antennae and RF capacity from the existing 1 lakh to 2 lakh and also intends to increase production of mobile phone base stations from the existing 25,000 to 35,000 by March-end 2008.

In India, at present there are 150,000 base stations, due to rapid mobile phone expansion. About 100,000 base stations are to be added this year alone and it is expected to touch half-a-million by 2010.

"As the demand for antennae from mobile phone service providers has picked up pace and as the industry is presently focused on expanding their services to rural India, the requirement of high performance cost-effective antennae has seen a quantum jump. To fulfil their demand we intend to invest Rs 15 crore in our existing plants in Bangalore to increase production," Reddy said.