Lucknow To Have A New Missile Manufacturing Unit of BRAHMOS Aerospace
BRAHMOS AEROSPACE Company was formed on February 12, 1998, as a joint venture between DRDO and joint stock company ‘Military Industrial Consortium’ of Russia. Presently the BRAHMOS Aerospace has production facilities in Hyderabad, Nagpur and Pilani. The company produces one of the world’s best supersonic cruise missile system BRAHMOS having a range of 400km.
The Company is now going in for production of new generation of BRAHMOS missiles. So it is planning to set up a new facility under the firm’s expansion plan for the Next Generation Missile project. Therefore the BRAHMOS Aerospace has proposed to set up a state-of-the-art production facility in the Lucknow node of UP’s Defence Corridor.
The establishment of the facility at LUCKNOW will turn Uttar Pradesh into an aerospace and defence hub of India as it will bring in niche technologies. It will also put Lucknow prominently on the world map as a manufacturing hub for top-notch technologies.
On February 21, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ₹20,000 crore Defence Industrial Corridor in Bundelkhand region, which was considered as one of the most backward regions of UP. The Defence Corridor has a total of six nodes around Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Kanpur and Lucknow.
Sudhir Kumar Mishra, CEO and MD, BrahMos Aerospace, met chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday for the allotment of 200 acres land in the state capital. The plant would come up with an approximate investment of ₹300 crore and provide direct employment to 500 engineers and technical staff. Besides, around 10,000 people will get indirect employment. In three years, the plant will have the capacity to manufacture 100 BRAHMOS Next Generation missiles.
According to government sources, Yogi Adityanath gave his consent to the project and directed officials to allocate land to BRAHMOS Aerospace. The company was likely to start production within three months of getting possession of land.
Mishra also sent a letter to Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary (home) and CEO of UPEIDA, for allotment of land in Lucknow.
According to government officials, the IAF has already placed an order of nearly 400 BrahMos missiles worth ₹8000 crore. The Lucknow hub will be executing this order at its proposed manufacturing unit. This hub will also be carrying out production of all export orders garnered for this much sought after missile.
Over 200 small, medium and large Indian public and private sector defence enterprises, institutions and laboratories have already been associated with the prestigious BRAHMOS missile programme, so far. Once the new hub comes up at Lucknow, then there is going to be a big boost to various enterprises in Uttar Pradesh too.
