Adani led group L&T and others bid to build PSLV for the first time

A PSLV contract will see entities outside the ISRO build a launch vehicle end to end, for the first time. In the race to win it are two consortia and a firm, including an Adani-led group and L&T

These three entities had submitted their bids on July 30, in response to an RFP (Request for Proposal) issued by NSIL NSE -0.06 % (New Space India Limited), a TOI report said.

NSIL was initially meant to be the commercial leg of ISRO, however, it was later mandated with productionising launch vehicles, owning satellites and more.

In August 2019, NSIL had announced an expression of interest (EoI) for five PSLVs, to which five entities had responded. Then, in December 2020, the RFP was issued for the same.

“There were five players who responded to the EOI; three have submitted bids after the RFP just over three weeks ago,” a senior official said.

A consortium of HAL NSE 7.12 % and L&T, another comprising Adani-Alpha Design, BEL and BEML are the two group entities, while BHEL NSE 4.23 % has bid as a single firm.

According to the Department of Space, this contract will boost the Make-in-India initiative and will allow ISRO to launch more satellites each year.

NSIL chairman and managing director Radhakrishnan D, said: “The techno-commercial evaluation is underway, after which the bids will be opened. We are hopeful of completing the whole process in a couple of months, and cannot comment on anything more at this juncture.”