Not just 'nuts and bolts', but BrahMos, drones to be made in UP: Rajnath

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.

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.

"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 here on "Atmanirbhar Bharat".

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".

Of this, 36 industries and institutions have been allotted nearly 600 hectare of land, he said, adding that 109 MoUs have been signed, with an estimated investment value of more than Rs 16,000 crore.

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.