Tata Motors: Defence order book at Rs 1,500 crore; see potential market for FICV at $39 billion

NEW DELHI: Betting big on the sector, Tata Motors on Friday said that its defence order book stands at Rs 1,500 crore. A Tata Motors executive said that there is a "definite shift" in the new government's policy towards defence procurement.

"We see potential market for future infantry combat vehicles (FICV) at about $39 billion," the executive said. "We have won a contract to supply 1239 units of 6x6 high mobility vehicles to Indian army whose total value is about Rs 900 crore," he added.

Recently, the government cleared the lone bid of Airbus-TATA consortium for replacing Indian Air Force's fleet of ageing Avro transport aircraft for Rs 11,930 crore.

In May, 2013, the ministry had issued an RFP to original equipment manufacturers, including US firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, European multinational Airbus Defence and Space and Antonov of Ukraine, among others.

They were required to tie-up with an Indian private firm to produce 40 of the aircraft in the country while the remaining 16 were to be bought off the shelf.

However, only a single bidder -- the Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) consortium -- had shown an interest in the proposal.