Making the private sector’s first major foray into defence production in India, a Tata Group firm and Larsen and Toubro have bagged orders worth Rs 200 crore for producing the indigenously developed multi-barrel rocket launcher—Pinaka. As per the order issued by the Army headquarters on March 29, Tata Power’s Advanced Material Division and L&T Heavy Engineering Division will produce around 40 Pinaka MRBLs each, sources said.

Confirming the development, Tata Power (Strategic Electronic Division) CEO Rahul Chaudhry said that the company would deliver the first launchers to the Army in six months. ‘‘The order has materialised and we would deliver the first launchers to the Army in six months,’’ he said.

This will be the first major confirmed order from the services after defence production was opened to the private sector in 2001, he added.

A top L&T official said the company would deliver the rocket launchers within the stipulated time frame. Both the companies have to deliver the entire order for the two Army regiments in three years.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of its integrated guided missile development programme, Pinaka is an all weather, indirect fire, free flight, area saturation weapon system.

It consists of a multi-barrel rocket launcher vehicle with 12 tubes, three replenishment vehicles, a loader-cum-replenishment vehicle and a fire control system. The weapon system has already entered the services.