The government on Monday approved a project for three Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle operational flights at a cost of Rs9.45 billion [Rs945 crore].

The decision for approval of the GSLV project -- three operational flights [FO1, FO2, FO3] along with advanced actions for three sets of material and one additional set of hardware as a rolling standby -- was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet.

The foreign exchange component of the project will be Rs3.68 billion [Rs 368.8 crore], official sources said.

The decision was taken keeping in view aspects like servicing the operational launches of INSAT, maintaining continuous production, lead time for realisation of a launch vehicle, potential commercial opportunities and strategic reasons.

With the realisation of the three flights, end-to-end capability to launch communication satellites will be available during the Tenth Plan.

GSLV-FO1 is expected to be ready by June 2004, GSLV-FO2 by June 2005 and GSLV-FO3 by June 2006.