Article Posted on : - Nov 11, 2010

NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indo-Russian joint project for designing and developing a military multi-role transport aircraft (MTA) will formally begin in January next year, the government has said.

A shareholders agreement was signed on September 9 between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russian companies UAC and Rosoboronexport, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju told the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.

"It is planned to start the project in January 2011, after incorporation of the joint venture programme," he said in a written reply.

The agreement, he said, was for incorporation of the joint venture company for design, development and production of the MTA and it was in pursuance of the Inter-Governmental Agreement between the two countries, which was signed on November 12, 2007.

"The joint venture company will have a shareholding of 50 per cent each from both sides. The investment for the programme has been worked out to be USD 600.7 million at 2006 price level, which will be shared equally by the two sides," he said.

India and Russia had announced last month that under the MTA programme, the former would get about 45 aircraft, after Defence Minister A K Antony held the Inter-Governmental Commission meeting with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov here.