BANGALORE: Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which will be signing the contract papers for 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) TEJAS MK-1A aircraft on Wednesday, is also confident of bagging orders for 15 limited series production aircraft of Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) while the request for quotation for HTT-40 trainer aircraft is also being vetted.

A specific question posed on the subject to defence minister Rajnath Singh and ministry of defence officials was diverted to HAL CMD R Madhavan, who said: “The proposal for LCH procurement is expected to go to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) very soon. So far as HTT-40 goes, the RFQ is being vetted and that should come through too.”

Earlier in the day, Singh inaugurated the second dedicated plant for TEJAS, and reiterated the need to successfully implement the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. “India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence,” he said after the inauguration.

“The new TEJAS facility is an example of how ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is shaping up and HAL deserves the largest indigenous order of 83 TEJAS MK-IA. TEJAS is the pride of India and sends the right message to others that India can make fighters of class in-house,” Singh said.

The TOI had reported earlier this week that the plant would be inaugurated on Tuesday. Stating that the fighter plane was superior in many ways, he complimented HAL for working through COVID-19.

Madhavan said the phase -1 of the facility getting ready on 35 acres of land will enable HAL to enhance its production capacity to 16 from the current eight aircraft every year.

“The state of the art machines such as CNC profilers, five axis machining centres etc., for producing technologically challenging, high pressure fluid cell press machines, test rigs, specialized facilities for heat treatment, special processes and hangars for structural assembly of aircraft are being created in the new TEJAS complex. Production tooling and productivity improvement initiatives have also been undertaken by adopting latest simulation software packages under capacity augmentation,” Madhavan added.