Lucknow, Aug 24 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh may soon start manufacturing the next-gen state-of-the-art 'BrahMos missile'.
The CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, Sudhir Kumar Mishra, wrote to UPEIDA CEO and Additional Chief Secretary (home), Avanish Awasthi, on Tuesday seeking 200-acre land for its project at the Defence Corridor for making the BrahMos missile.
A delegation from BrahMos Aerospace also met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday.
The BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile is the only unique, precise and state-of-the-art cruise missile in the world. The missile has been designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture of DRDO, Government of India and NPOM, Government of Russia.
It is based on the technology of Russia's P-800 Oniks cruise missile.
About 500 engineers and technical people will get direct employment in the BrahMos production centre which will be built by investing Rs 300 crores on the land to be allotted for making missiles, said a government spokesman.
Apart from this, about 5,000 people will get indirect employment and 10,000 people will get work through the production centre.
The work of setting up the BrahMos production centre is likely to start soon. Research and development work will also be done in the centre.
More than 100 BrahMos missiles are planned to be built in the next three years.
It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the creation of a Defence Corridor in UP during an Investors' Summit in January 2018.
Further, it was announced that the state government is setting up defence corridors in Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Agra, and Aligarh nodes.
During the Defence Expo-Lucknow in February 2020, many domestic and foreign companies making products related to defence had signed MoUs worth Rs 50,000 crore for investment in the corridor. Most of the MoUs have been signed for the corridor being built in Andla on Khair Road in Aligarh.
Various companies have shown interest in investing in the Lucknow node. According to the officials of Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), around 29 companies submitted their proposals to the state government for setting up factories in the Aligarh node and requested to provide land for setting up the same.
Similarly, 11 companies in the Lucknow node, six in the Jhansi node, and eight in Kanpur node have requested to provide land for setting up factories. Acting on the proposals received from various companies, the UPEDIA has so far allotted 55.4 hectares of land in the Aligarh node to 19 international companies.
About four acres of land has been allotted to two companies in the Kanpur node and 15 acres of land to one company in Jhansi, whereas in Lucknow node, it has been agreed to give 200 acres of land to build the Brahmos production centre.