NEW DELHI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - India expects to spend

about 654 billion rupees ($7.44 billion) to buy engines for

fighter aircraft that are under development until 2035,

according to estimates shared on Friday by a defence official

who leads the efforts to build a home-grown engine.

The country will require about 1,100 engines for a variety

of fighter jet programmes that are progressing through various

stages, said S. V. Ramana Murthy, director of India's Gas

Turbine Research Establishment, a state-run defence laboratory.

India's decades-old programme to power its light combat

Tejas jets with home-grown Kaveri engine has yet to take off due

to technical shortcomings.

"There is a need to work on mission mode to create an

ecosystem for indigenous fighter engine," Murthy said at an

event in New Delhi, adding that the country needed

infrastructure such as a high-altitude testing facility, along

with an industrial base.

He also said that a derivative of the Kaveri engine can be

used for a home-grown unmanned combat aerial vehicle.

Murthy is heading the efforts to co-develop an engine with

an international partner to power India's first 5th generation

stealth fighter aircraft, for which France's Safran,

Britain's Rolls-Royce and U.S. General Electric

have shown interest.

A prototype of the fighter, known as the Advanced Medium

Combat Aircraft, is expected to roll out in 2028, Indian

officials have previously said.

It is the first fighter aircraft for which bids would also

be open to private firms, the government has said, in order to

reduce pressure on Indian state-owned warplane maker Hindustan

Aeronautics Ltd, which makes most of India's military

aircraft.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has sought to

boost India's manufacturing capacity for defence equipment and

invited weapon makers to set up units by partnering with Indian

firms.

($1 = 87.9462 Indian rupees)