Hyderabad-based company MTAR plays an important role in Agni projects

In all the excitement surrounding the successful launch of the Agni-V missile on April 19th, what may have gone unnoticed is the role of a 42-year-old Hyderabad-based company that has been involved in all the Agni projects since the early 1980s.

In the Agni-V Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, which was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, MTAR has had an important role to play in the supply of some of the outer frames and fins for the missile. Not willing to disclose more details or financials of the project, K Vamshidhar Reddy, President, MTAR Technologies Pvt Ltd, says, "Agni is one of the prestigious projects that we have been involved since beginning apart from some of the other nationally important projects.''
 
This company is an indigenous precision equipment supplier to Indian space, defence and nuclear sectors. In defence, it has been involved in projects like Agni and Prithvi. In space, it has been involved in the projects related to supply of engines to GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) and PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and some components for other satellite projects. In the area of nuclear power, it has been involved in providing assemblies for nuclear reactor's fuel handling systems for the core of the nuclear reactors.

Its supplies have been to Nuclear Power Corporation of the Department of Atomic Energy. While not disclosing the value of these projects, Reddy says that typically the nuclear sector contributes about 35 to 40 per cent of the total revenues of the company, space about 20 to 25 per cent and defence about 15 to 20 per cent depending on the timing and the nature of the project. The rest of the revenues come from supplies to MNCs in the area of aerospace, power supply and oil fields. Its total revenues today are close to Rs 200 crore, he says.