In a bid to improve the indigenous defence manufacturing units, the government has announced its decision to purchase their products for a period of ten years. This encouraging announcement was made by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the inauguration of the first phase of Uttar Pradesh defence industrial corridor in Aligarh on Saturday.
Aligarh is one of the six nodal points of defence production corridors in UP. The corridor would pass through six districts—Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Chitrakoot.
The minister also made an appeal to the defence industries to increase their export capacity to meet the global demand for quality defence products.
The announcement to develop two defence industrial production corridors to promote the defence sector was made in the Union budget 2018. The second corridor is being built between Chennai and Bengaluru—connecting Kattupalli Port, Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore and Hosur.
"Startups and MSMEs can show their innovative products to us. After the required tests are completed, we are ready to buy those products. I assure you to give you orders for minimum 10 years," Sitharaman said, and assured that the Union government will support the defence industry in every possible manner.
She further said all aspects of the defence production should be taken care of in order to create the defence manufacturing corridor. "There is a global demand for world class defence equipment and products. I urge all of you to increase your defence export potential. We are willing to work with you to reach this goal," she added.
The minister said she would appeal to the investors to look beyond the armed forces in terms of potential markets. The first phase of proposed corridor started within six months after it was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the investor’s summit in February this year.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that the state is now the best place for investment and added that the defence corridor will increase job opportunities in the state. He further said the state has identified 4,000 hectares of land on Jhansi-Bundelkhand expressway and 263 hectares in Aligarh for the defence corridor.
The chief minister said they have already drafted defence and aerospace policy to extend cooperation to defence companies in private and public sector.
T. Suvarna Raju, CMD of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, said the defence aerospace public sector undertaking has decided to invest Rs 1,200 crore in the industrial corridor.