DHIRUBHAI AEROSPACE PARK BAGS RS 6.5K CRORE WORTH FDI, BIGGEST IN INDIA’S DEFENCE HISTORY

NAGPUR: The Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park (DAAP) coming up with an capital investment of Rs 6,500 crore in partnership with Dassault Aviation will be the biggest FDI in the Indian defence sector till now, top officials said here on Friday.

The foundation stone laying ceremony, scheduled to take place here later in the day, will be attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari, French Minister for Armed Forces Florence Parly, Reliance Group Chairman Anil D. Ambani and Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier.

The DAAP will be home to the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL), a 51:49 joint venture between Reliance Aerostructure and Dassault Aviation, the French aviation major specialising in defence aircraft.

The DRAL would be the lead project for executing the offset programme of the Rafale fighter jets and the partnership will bring in not only high-level Transfer of Technology, but also help develop the ecosystem of the domestic aerospace sector and feed into the global supply chain.

The execution of this offset clause will also bring in the largest foreign direct investment in the defence sector till date and make it the largest offset contract in the country's history.

In 2016, India signed a 7.9 billion euros ($8.8 billion contract for purchasing 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly-away condition which incorporated a 50 per cent offset clause, mandating that 50 per cent of the deal value would be invested in the Indian defence ecosystem. While the first lot of the Rafale jets from France are expected to be delivered by September 2019, the remaining will be delivered after another 30 months.