New Delhi: India will have 17 Rafale jets by March and the entire batch of the French-origin fighter aircraft bought by the country will reach by April 2022, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament.

India had signed an inter-governmental deal with France to buy 36 of these fighter jets at a cost of Rs 59,000 crores in September 2016.

“I want to inform that till now, 11 Rafale have arrived and by this March, 17 Rafale will be on our land. I also inform that all Rafale will reach India by April 2022,” Singh said while replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

He said all new aircraft types in IAF are traditionally inducted through a befitting ceremony.

The first five Rafale aircraft of IAF were formally inducted into IAF on September 10, 2020. The arrangements for this event were made mostly through local resources of IAF.

The total expenditure on the event was Rs 41.32 lakhs including Rs 9.18 lakh of GST.

To another supplementary query whether the government will privatise few aspects of defence in the coming days, the minister said, “We are giving special focus on indigenisation.”