At Aero India this year, the NAL-HAL National Civil Aircraft programme could have fresh contours, with officialy likely to scout fresh partnerships in taking the ambitious project forward. As reported earlier by SP's, in the next six-seven years, the programme hopes to ready its first platform — a 100-seat civil passenger jet for Indian service and exports. A team from HAL and NAL made a presentation in 2013 to the Planning Commission, where it was decided that HAL would be lead integrator on the programme, along with the National erAeronautics Laboratory (NAL). Modalities of a consortium or joint venture have also been formalised. According to outgoing HAL chairman R.K. Tyagi, the NCAD programme envisages an investment of 7500 crore — 4,500 crore in design and 3,000 crore for prototype production. Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who has thrown his weight being the programme, says, "There are opportunities and challenges such as developing 100-seat passenger jet which could be taken up by youngsters like you." A host of private sector companies are expected to be part of the programme. The National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) in Bengaluru will play a crucial role in bringing the aircraft platform together. According to NAL, "The design and development of National Civil Aircraft will be carried out by a core team at NAL in configuration design, systems engineering, definition of subsystems, integration/flight testing and programme management. NAL will also be responsible for undertaking the detailed engineering design for the new aircraft." NAL has conducted several extensive seminars in the last two years with Russian and American expert groups on moving the project forward.