Lucknow : Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said in Lucknow on Saturday that the Uttar Pradesh Defense Corridor (UPDIC) will manufacture everything from nuts and bolts to BrahMos missiles, drones and electronic warfare systems. Rajnath Singh was speaking at a program organized here on self-reliant India. He further said that the Uttar Pradesh Defense Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is an ambitious project through which the Indian defense sector’s dependence on foreign suppliers is aimed at reducing.
The corridor will be built on 1,700 hectares of land – Defense Minister
The Defense Minister said that we have created a favorable environment for defense manufacturing through the Defense Corridor in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. UPDIC, I am told, plans to acquire about 1,700 hectares of land for this corridor, of which more than 95 percent has already been acquired. Out of these, about 600 hectares of land has been allotted to 36 industries and institutions and 109 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) have been signed with an estimated investment of over Rs 16,000 crore, he added.
From missile to nutbolt will be manufactured – Defense Minister
The Defense Minister said that so far a total investment of about Rs 2,500 crore has been made in UPDIC by various units. The most important thing in the Uttar Pradesh Defense Corridor is that not only nut-bolts or spare parts will be manufactured here, but drones / UAVs, electronic items, aircraft and BrahMos missiles will also be manufactured and prepared.
UPDIC will be constructed in six cities of the state
It is worth mentioning that the project started with the announcement of investment of more than Rs 3,700 crore in defense production at an event in Aligarh on August 11, 2018. At the same time, six cities were identified for the construction of UPDIC, including Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow.