New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) The Ministry of Defence on Friday signed a contract with Bharat Forge Limited, Pune for the acquisition of 12 sets of 1.25 MW Marine Gas Turbine Generators, with minimum 60 per cent indigenous content, for the Indian Navy at a total cost of around Rs 425 crore.

The contract was inked under Buy (Indian) category in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh. The project reinforces the Government’s commitment to Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make-in-India by creating a robust domestic manufacturing ecosystem.

“It would enhance maritime self-reliance in critical strategic technologies and bolster Indian Navy’s operational readiness through indigenous production & end-to-end life-cycle support,” the Ministry of Defence said.

“The contract marks a significant step towards establishing indigenous capability to manufacture marine gas turbine generators,” the ministry added.

The generator serves as a backbone of modern Naval combatants for power generation applications that power critical combat systems and advanced weapon & sensors.

This came at a time when government is pushing domestic production of defence equipment to boost Make in India.

Earlier this week, the Centre announced that the country’s annual defence production surged to an all-time high of Rs 1.78 lakh crore in the last financial year (FY26).

This represents a 15.6 per cent growth over the previous fiscal’s (FY25) output of Rs 1.54 lakh crore, and a staggering 110 per cent increase since FY 2020-21 when the figure was Rs 84,643 crore.

The indigenous defence production has increased almost four times from Rs 43,746 crore in FY 2013-14, according to Defence Ministry.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh credited the inspiring leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking India’s defence production to newer heights.

In a post on X on June 17, the minister lauded the collective efforts of the Department of Defence Production and public and private sectors for achieving the landmark.

–IANS

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