Mumbai, Jan 22: Heavy engineering giant Larsen &
Toubro (L&T) will set up a major research facility that will
conceptualise weapons systems developed by government agency
DRDO for commercial production.
"We are not looking to set up something parallel to
the DRDO. It will be complementary," L&T Board Member M V
Kotwal said.
"As far as investments are concerned, we are ready.
Once the green signal is given (by the government), then we
can work on it," he added.
Elaborating on the research facility, he said the DRDO
will play a valuable role if it restricts to real cutting edge
high-end technologies, which India is yet to acquire. There
are huge facilities and capable people in the DRDO, Kotwal
said.
L&T would concentrate on applying the high-end
technologies developed by DRDO, he said. "We can take up that
role rather than DRDO wasting its time."
The premier defence research agency should look at
the front-end, which requires large investments, because that
is what it already has, he said. "DRDO has huge facilities and
capable people," the L&T official said.
But as far as applying those technologies are concerned,
L&T can take up that role, Kotwal said.
"We are geared up for things."
The heavy engineering firm is also planning
investments at its manufacturing base in Coimbatore where
various divisions of the company are setting up a unit.
The Coimbatore facility was mainly for defence and
aerospace equipment manufacturing, Kotwal said, adding, "The
facility would concentrate on high precision manufacturing."
Also, it being a base for high-precision
manufacturing, the company has set up two modules there, he
said. "We have capacity to add on because it is a very large
area."
The private company is looking at building aircraft as
well at Coimbatore, but it depends on government policies, he
said.
As there is no road map for aircraft manufacturing,
"Today we are talking about precision manufacturing. We are
supporting a large number of Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd (HAL)
programmes. Not only metallics, but composites," he said.
"We intend growing in that area. The base at
Coimbatore can build towards aircraft manufacturing."
"There is a potential to go into full aircraft
manufacturing in the years to come. We are progressively going
in the direction. But there is no immediate plan to get into
the commercial aircraft business," the L&T board member said.
As of now, HAL in Bangalore is the only aircraft maker
for air force. L&T has been working for HAL to make
sub-assemblies.
"In addition to Coimbatore, we have got a facility in
Vadodara. That has been expanded to take up composite
manufacture, which are used for aircraft and missiles," Kotwal
said.
Bureau Report
