New Delhi: The government said Adani Enterprises Limited and L&T are part of two consortia led by State-run enterprises that have evinced interest in building the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the ISRO’s warhorse rocket to put satellites in orbit, Parliament was told.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh said in a bid to encourage private sector participation in the space sector, New Space India Limited (NSIL), a company under the Department of Space, had invited proposals from the Indian industry to build five PSLVs.
He said two consortia, one comprising Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Larsen & Toubro, and another involving Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) and Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), have submitted techno-commercial proposals for building PSLV.
State-run Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited too has submitted a techno-commercial proposal for end-to-end realisation of PSLV, he told the Rajya Sabha.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had been working closely with the industry in building launch vehicles, satellites and other components, but it was for the first time in 2020 that the government opened up the sector for private participation for the entire spectrum of space operations, including planetary exploration missions.
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) acts as the agency to promote, handhold and authorise private sector activities in the sector, besides enabling sharing of technical facilities and expertise from ISRO.
NSIL has the mandate to scale up private participation in the space programme and also own and operate capital-intensive assets such as satellites and launch vehicles.
Singh said since 2020, IN-SPACe has received 48 applications from private players for undertaking space activities and these are being processed for further action.
Out of these, the applications with respect to authorizing the space activities to non-government private entities are 16, sharing of technology and facilities of Department of Space to NGPEs are 23 and Consultancy and Promotion are 9, he said in a written response.
