Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the defence corridor is a significant step in the indigenization of defence production under the Central government’s Flagship Make in India initiative.

Inaugurating the second Defense Industrial Corridor in Trichy, Tamilnadu today, the minister reiterated that the corridor will lead to increase in the quality of output from the small, micro, medium industries sector, which will play an increasing role in the defence equipment corridor.

In the meantime, the defence ministry has asserted that Trichy offers immense scope for defence manufacturing as major public sector companies like BHEL, the Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project, the Ordnance Factory etc function in the region. The first defence corridor was launched in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh in August last year.

Our correspondent reports that The multi-nodal corridor project has attracted investments to the tune of Rs 3038 crores till now. It will specialize in precision related defence equipments as well as providing the much needed encouragement to the small, micro and medium segment under the Make in India scheme. Smt Sithraman also unveiled six defence products including OE Pods, Trichy Assault Rifles and Arjun Tank 1A at the function as well as inaugurating the nation’s first Defense Innovation Hub at Kovai through video conferencing.

Later, speaking to media persons, Smt Sithraman said that the opposition was not prepared to hear the government’s stand on the Rafale deal as well as the orders given to public sector HAL. She said that the central government has allotted many development projects to Tamilnadu and that the people have welcomed it.