The Central government on Wednesday secured a  ₹48,000 crore deal for purchasing 83 Tejas light combat aircraft from state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

The contract was handed over by Director General (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence, V L Kantha Rao to Chairman and Managing Director of HAL, R Madhavan, at the inaugural ceremony of Aero India-2021, the country's premier defence and aerospace show in the national capital in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, PTI reported.

Tejas is a highly agile multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft capable of operating in high-threat air environments.

"The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month approved the deal for procurement of the 73 Tejas Mk-IA variant and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-I trainer aircraft from the HAL to boost IAF's combat prowess", the report added.