Tejas project to cost Rs. 55,000 crore.

The Tejas light combat aircraft programme will end up costing India well over Rs. 55,000 crore at the very least. The overall developmental cost of the home-grown fighter, which remains a critical operational necessity despite still being in the making after 30 years, currently stands at Rs. 17,269 crore.

Then, the production cost of each Tejas will conservatively be around Rs. 220 crore. If as per the existing plan, IAF goes in for 120 fighters and the Navy for 50, it adds up to Rs. 37,440 crore. The defence ministry till now has approved orders for 20 Tejas jets in 'initial operational clearance configuration for Rs. 2,813 crore for IAF, and another 20 in final FOC configuration for Rs. 5,989 crore.

IAF currently has 10 ageing MiG-21 squadrons (each with 20-21 jets) and four MiG-27 ones. They are to be replaced by six squadrons of Tejas and another six under the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project for which 126 French Rafale jets are under consideration.

Confirming what TOI had reported last year, defence minister A K Antony gave some indication of all this in Parliament recently by holding that the developmental cost of Tejas, including the IAF and naval variants, stands at Rs. 14,033 crore as of now.

ET