In a major move to boost indigenization of defense manufacturing, Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched here a mega corridor to link leading military manufacturing units in five cities in South India, which entails an investment to the tune of over Rs 3,000 crore.
The project, christened the Tamil Nadu Defense Industrial Corridor, will link Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli.
It is the second defense corridor being set up by the government to support various defense manufacturing units. The first one is being established in Uttar Pradesh.
Total investments worth over Rs 3,038 crore in this defense corridor were announced during the launch. A majority of the investments would come from public sector undertakings with Ordnance Factory Board, Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited committing to invest Rs 2,305 crore, Rs 140.5 crore and Rs 150 crore, respectively.
Private companies TVS, Data Patterns and Alpha Designs would make investments of Rs 50 crore, Rs 75 crore and Rs 100 crore, respectively.
Lockheed Martin, one of the global security giants, also announced its intention to invest in the corridor.
“The response from the local industry to this defense corridor has been amazing. They even wanted to extend this corridor up to Palakkad but we had to tell them that it would currently consist of these five nodes (cities) only,” Sitharaman said.
The minister said development of these defense corridors will facilitate a well-planned and efficient industrial base that will lead to increased defense production in the country. The idea behind setting up defense industrial corridors is to ensure connectivity among various defense industrial units.
The five nodal cities have existing defense ecosystem in the form of ordnance factory boards, vendors working with defense PSUs, and other allied industries. PTI
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