L&T Expects Rs 4,600-Crore Order For Field Guns By Next Month, Says AM Naik

The Narendra Modi government’s push for local defence manufacturing has started showing results and Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) expects to close the current financial year with defence orders worth up to Rs 8,000 crore, according to group executive chairman, AM Naik.

A Rs 4,600-crore order for field guns is expected by next month-end, Naik told BloombergQuint’s Menaka Doshi. L&T has tied up with Korea’s Samsung Techwin to supply self-propelled, tracked howitzers to the army.

More than 50 percent of the manufacturing will take place in India, Naik said, adding that L&T will gain from the government’s efforts to rope in private players for defence manufacturing.

Ten years during the previous (UPA) government’s (term), nothing happened. Zero. At least, here (under the Modi regime) something has started happening now. The government is clear that defence has to be largely participated by the private sector. It will declare by next month a policy on strategic participation in defence by private sector.
- AM Naik, Executive Chairman, L&T Group

Naik said that L&T has built seven facilities and defence orders have started flowing in. “Things, however, could move a bit more faster.”

 bloombergquint