The Hindu : Kerala News : Keltron gets Rs. 16-crore Navy orders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Keltron gets Rs. 16-crore Navy orders

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 21. Keltron, a State public sector undertaking, has bagged orders worth Rs. 16 crores from the Indian Navy for electro magnetic log, transmission units, dual channel underwater telephones, and echo sounders.

At a press conference today, the Keltron managing director, V. Ramkumar, said the special products division of the company at Karakulam, near here, had a record order list of Rs. 43 crores now. This unit was concentrating on products such as ground mines, radar interface units, steering gear control systems, and rescue beacons that the Defence Department needs.

Turnover

He said the division would record a turnover of about Rs. 20 crores this year with an annual production growth of 50 per cent. Its contribution to Keltron group's total turnover was in the range of 20 per cent.

He said Keltron had developed an electro magnetic log to measure the distance travelled by ships and also the speed. The equipment had passed sea trials and other tests specified in the Joint Service Standards. The Navy had subsequently cleared it for use and placed orders for 17 units. This order was worth Rs. 4 crores, he said.

Another order is for dual channel underwater telephones for aircraft carrier Admiral Goroshkov being procured from Russia by the Navy. These telephones are for ship-to-ship and ship-to-submarine communication. The value of the order is Rs. 1 crore.

Keltron had been into the manufacturing of `processor-based' ground mines for the Navy for quite some time now. On Thursday, it handed over its 101st ground mine unit to the Navy at the Karakulam factory. This device is an import substitution armament. Keltron has orders for 50 more ground mines, Mr. Ramkumar said.

He said Keltron had the expertise and spare capacity to manufacture more defence-related products. The company considered this segment as the thrust area for future growth, he said.

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