Article Posted on : - Apr 25, 2012

BANGALORE (PTI): A technical snag encountered by a consortium partner has led to defence electronics major Bharat Electronics Limited short-supplying Akash Weapon System to the Indian Air Force in the last fiscal, a top official has said.

"Technical snag encountered by a consortium partner has led to BEL short-supplying Akash Weapon System, a medium-range surface-to-air missile system. Against supply of 96 missiles, we could receive only 15 missiles from one of our consortium partners," BEL Chairman and Managing Director Anil Kumar said Tuesday.

The short supply of the system to IAF, in turn, impacted both top and bottom lines of BEL whose revenue grew just by 3.3 per cent to Rs 5710 crore (provisional) in 2011-12 against Rs 5529.69 crore the previous year, he told reporters.

But for now, the technical snag has been resolved and manufacturing of Akash Weapon System had begun and its supplies would be completed by December 2012, he said.

"BEL has obtained an order worth Rs 3125 crore for supply of Akash Weapon System to the Army," he added.

He expressed confidence of meeting current year's revenue target of Rs 6300 crore with an order book value of Rs 25748 crore as on March 31 as against Rs 23600 crore as on March 31, 2011. "During last fiscal fresh orders worth Rs 7000 crore were booked."

BEL was eyeing a larger share of the Rs 16000 crore missile order of defence by extending the expertise it had gained in Akash Weapon System, he said.

Kumar said government rejecting an export order worth $6.5 million to Thales through its Indian subsidiary had resulted in a lower exports of $38.45 million as against $41.53 million in 2010-11. However, the current year would witness a better export performance as the company had already orders worth $60 million, he said.

Major orders BEL is executing include Rs 602 crore Coastal Surveillance System, a Rs 542 crore order for Social Economic and Caste Census for which it was supplying a rugged PC tablet, a ship borne ESM system order worth Rs 400 crore, ship-borne integrated electronic warfare System for Rs 273 crore and Low level light weight radar for Rs 222 crore.