Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), the Toulouse-based regional aircraft maker, is in the race for selling two maritime surveillance aircraft to the Indian Coast Guard.

ATR chief executive officer Filippo Bagnato told that the company had submitted the quotation for the military version of the aircraft in response to a global tender floated by the Indian government in September 2004.

"The two surveillance aircraft will be used by the Coast Guard for patrolling the territorial waters surrounding the Indian coastline," Bagnato said.

"We will deliver the airframe to Alenia Aeronautica of the Italian Finmeccanica group, which will transform it into a patrol version for maritime and reconnaissance operations."

According to Indian military sources, besides ATR, Dassault Aviation of France, CASA of Spain, SAAB of Sweden, Embraer of Brazil, Antonov of Ukraine, Ilyushin Aviation of Russia, Dornier of Germany, Bombardier of Canada and Lockheed Martin of the US have submitted their quotations for the $27.7 million order.

The proposals are under the consideration of the defence ministry and a decision is expected this year.

"The criteria for short-listing the surveillance aircraft will be the airworthiness of the twin-engine plane and its sub-systems in a tropical weather that prevails in the sub-continent round the year," sources said.

Other technical parameters of the aircraft will be its ability to perform short take-off and landing, with a range of 2,000 nautical miles and a patrol speed of 180-405 km per hour.

The aircraft should also have a 360-degree radar with day and night landing capabilities.

At present the Indian Coast Guard has no long-range maritime surveillance aircraft.

Incidentally, ATR has delivered four maritime patrol version aircraft to the Italian Customs and three such aircraft to the Italian Coast Guard in the last five years.

"We are currently working on proposals for supplying similar aircraft to other countries. We are in touch with a variety of equipment and aircraft manufacturers for making the airframes and the sub-systems," Bagnato said.

The leading French aircraft manufacturer signed an agreement Thursday with Air Deccan, India's first low-cost no-frills airline, to deliver 30 ATR 72-500 models for feeder routes across the country.