Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary Avneesh K Awasthi told News18 that the BrahMos unit in Lucknow will be the “focal point” of the Defense Corridor project in Uttar Pradesh and work on the mega unit will begin in October.
India will build its next generation BrahMos (BrahMos-NG) in this unit and has committed an investment of Rs 3,000 crore for the project by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). India and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia. The first phase will see an investment of Rs 1,500 crore and over 100 BrahMos missiles will be manufactured here in the next three years.
Awasthi said UP has been assured that by September all the approvals for the project will be received from DRDO and the construction of the unit will start by October. “We have allotted 80 hectares of land at a nominal cost and the joint venture has taken over the land; 50% of the boundary work has also been completed. Awasthi said, he has made a bigger plan than what he had now.
The Additional Chief Secretary said that the BrahMos unit will be the “centre of production that will make the main difference” in the upcoming Defense Corridor in UP. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had laid the foundation stone of the BrahMos missile installed in Lucknow on December 26 last year. Awasthi said that another important project in the Defense Corridor is to set up state-of-the-art common defense testing infrastructure under a scheme promoted by the Defense Ministry.
Defense corridor is shaping up, no progress in Agra
The Defense Industrial Corridor in Uttar Pradesh is planned to be set up in six nodes across the state in several districts and so far, a total of 93 industrial and institutional MoUs have been signed with various private investors and organizations with an estimated investment value of Rs. 11,256 crore, says UP Govt. The highest number of MoUs (35) have been signed for Aligarh node, followed by Lucknow node with 15, Kanpur node with 12 and Jhansi with nine.
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) is setting up an anchor unit with an investment of Rs 400 crore in Phase 1 at Jhansi on 183 hectares of land for manufacturing the propulsion system.
About 1,600 hectares of land parcels have been procured by the UP government for the Defense Corridor, but no land has been identified or procured in the Agra node. “Lucknow node is witnessing rapid activity and Aligarh node is sold out. Kanpur node we are expecting big investment and Jhansi we have for BDL and others are also coming,” Awasthi told News18.
However, the Agra node has not seen any progress due to the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) restrictions, which have imposed a complete ban on all industrial activities in a large area of the Agra region.
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