India is set to boost its defence manufacturing capabilities with the inauguration of a BrahMos missile production facility in Lucknow on 11 May, the Indian Express reported.
The unit aims to produce 80 to 100 supersonic cruise missiles each year and is part of the larger Defence Industrial Corridor being developed in Uttar Pradesh.
The BrahMos missile, a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, is a key asset in India’s strategic arsenal.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the Rs 300-crore unit, whose foundation was laid in 2021. It is a major component of the Defence Corridor initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 at the Global Investors Summit.
“The inauguration of the BrahMos unit worth Rs 300 crore will certainly be a big boost to the project in the state. About 1,600 hectares of land have been allotted for the defence corridor project in the first phase, with big companies having already signed MoUs. We are also in talks with BHEL for one of its units to come here,” said a senior government of the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPIEDA), spearheading the project.
The Defence Corridor comprises six key nodes: Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot.
Officials also confirmed that IIT Kanpur and IIT BHU in Varanasi have been designated as centres of excellence to support the Research and Development needed for the corridor. So far, investment proposals worth over Rs 28,000 crore have been received, with efforts ongoing to bring in even more.
