Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said "not only nuts and bolts", but BrahMos missiles, drones and electronic warfare systems will also be manufactured and assembled in the Uttar Pradesh defence corridor, as reported by the news agency PTI. "What is important is that in the UP defence corridor, not only nuts and bolts or spare parts will be manufactured, (but) drones, UAVs, electronic warfare (systems), aircraft and BrahMos missiles will also be manufactured and assembled," Singh told a gathering at an event in Lucknow on "Atmanirbhar Bharat," as quoted by PTI.
The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce the dependence of the Indian aerospace and the defence sectors on foreign suppliers. The minister said an "enabling" environment has been prepared for defence manufacturing through defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Singh said that about the UPDIC, "I have been told that for this corridor, the land which is planned to be acquired is around 1,700 hectare. Of this, more than 95 per cent of land has already been acquired," as quoted by PTI. Of this, 36 industries and institutions have been allotted nearly 600 hectare of land, he said. 109 MoUs have been signed, with an estimated investment value of more than Rs 16,000 crore, the minister added.
So far, investment of about Rs 2,500 crore has been made in the UPDIC by various entities, Singh said. The UPDIC took off to an encouraging start with the announcement of investments worth over Rs 3,700 crore in defence production at a meet organised in Aligarh in 2018.
Six nodes --- Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakut, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow -- have been identified for developing the UPDIC. Rajnath Singh will on Monday hold a bilateral meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Giang to carry forward India-Vietnam defence cooperation.
The two will also exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. Vietnam's Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang will be on an official visit to India from June 18-19. The minister will during his stay, also undertake a cultural visit to Agra. India and Vietnam share a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Bilateral defence relations form a significant pillar of this partnership, as per a release issued by the Ministry of Defence.
According to the release, defence engagements between the two nations have diversified to include wide-ranging contacts between the services, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building and training programmes, cooperation in UN Peacekeeping, ship visits and bilateral exercises.
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