Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project has begun taking shape as construction work for setting up an arms and ammunition factory on the 500 acres of land by the Adani Defence Systems in Kanpur started. Once it begins operations, it will be South Asia’s largest integrated ammunition manufacturing facility. The newly constructed factory will start defence production in the coming six months.
The Adani Defence Systems will manufacture 41 types of arms and ammo during the first phase of defence production. The company has inked a deal with a Bulgarian firm for the export of weapons and defence equipment to the country. The defence production company in the MSME category will manufacture grenades, rockets (68, 70 and 73 mm), mortars (81, 84 and 120 mm), mortar bombs, 40 mm low-velocity HE grenades etc. The initial production will start with 50,000 and it will go up to 15 lakh pieces annually.
In 2018, the government of India started Second Defence Corridor having six nodes. Kanpur district was one among those six nodes. The Uttar Pradesh Industrial Development Authority (UPIDA) allocated 500 acres of land to Adani Defence Systems for setting up the factory in Kanpur.
Sharing information with the ETV Bharat about the mega defence project coming up in the private sector, deputy commissioner, industries, Sudhir Srivastava, said, "The work on the project is moving at a fast pace and in the next six months the defence production will start. The boundary wall has been constructed and a shed for an assembly line has also been built. Their (company's) list of production contains 41 different types of arms and ammo such as hand grenades, bombs, rockets and others."
"The country is moving towards not only becoming self-reliant in defence production but also India will be the largest exporter of defence equipment in the coming years. The production in the defence sector will definitely make the country an economic superpower," Srivastava added.
