The first rear fuselage for the Tejas Mark-1A jet produced by the private sector was handed over to defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru on Sunday. This comes even as the IAF chief has publicly lashed out at HAL in recent weeks. HAL had placed orders with various Indian private companies such as L&T, Alpha Tocol Engineering Services, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, VEM Technologies and Lakshmi Mission Works for supplying major modules. The MoD, on its part, said HAL has already manufactured 12 rear fuselages for the tejas fighters, which are on the aircraft in the manufacturing line. The almost two-year delay in delivery of 99 GE-404 engines by US firm General Electric is one of the main reasons for the delay in Tejas fighters. The IAF till now has got 38 of the first 40 TejasMark-1 fighters ordered for Rs 8,802 crore under two contracts inked in 2006 and 2010. The first “improved” Tejas mark-1a jet, out of the 83 contracted from HAL under the Rs 46,898 crore deal in Feb 2021, is yet to be delivered.