Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), the Bangalore-based public sector undertaking under the ministry of defence, is likely to end the present financial year with an order book of over Rs 12,000 crore, a growth of 20 per cent during the year. As on March 31, 2009, BEL had an order book of Rs 10,000 crore, a top company official said.
“We are expecting another Rs 4,000 crore worth of orders from the defence forces in the remaining period of the present fiscal. With this, we will close the present fiscal with an order book of Rs 12,000 crore. We are executing orders in excess of Rs 4,950 crore during the year,” Ashwani Kumar Datt, chairman and managing director, BEL said.
He said the company would post close to a 10 per cent growth in terms of order execution during the present fiscal when compared to Rs 4,640 crore delivered in the last fiscal.
Presently, the contribution of defence forces to the company’s total order book stands at 85 per cent of the total order. With another Rs 4,000 crore worth of orders coming in during the next one and a half months, the proportion of defence business will increase further, Datt said.
Talking to Business Standard, he said the company was looking at SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Africa and European countries for orders for latest defence equipment like tactical communication system (TCS), which is on display at Defexpo 2010 at Delhi. BEL is displaying its transportable version of TCS developed by its in-house R&D unit for the first time.
BEL is targeting SAARC countries for low-end products and whole of Europe, Israel and America for offset business. Some of the countries in the Asian and African continent are interested in our lower range communication and electro optical products. As far as offsets are concerned, the company is targeting European and American companies, he said.
“TCS would be shown in the full test bed form, which is transportable. We have completed the development of the product and it is ready for trials. Earlier, we were showing only the desktop model. Some new capabilities have been built in TCS since the last time we displayed it. Similarly, some electro optical and radio products will be shown for the first time,” he said.
Some of the other products that are on display for the first time at Defexpo include night vision products, electro optical products like laser range finders, handheld thermal imagers, binoculars for use by defence forces, paramilitary forces and communication equipment, smaller radars like battle field surveillance radars among others.
Datt said the company was looking at offset business and contract manufacturing opportunities in a big way. “We expect major orders from abroad for aerospace applications, naval platform products like. Similarly, in electronic warfare, we are seeking export business. This is another area we will showcase our abilities. Equipment for naval communication systems, business enquiries are likely to come shortly,” he said
