BEL and IOL are lead SPV members in facilities
Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed an MoU to establish three state-of-the-art testing facilities in Chennai under the Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor – one each in Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Electronic Warfare (EW) and Electro Optics (EO) domains http://mod.gov.in .
The MoU, under the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS), was exchanged between senior officials of MoD and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited http://tidco.com in New Delhi on 2 Jul 2024.
With an outlay of Rs.400 crore, the DTIS was launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in May 2020 to set up state-of-the-art testing facilities in collaboration with private industry and Central/State Government, promoting indigenous defence production, reducing military equipment imports and enhancing self-reliance https://www.nseindia.com/ .
To provide impetus to the defence and aerospace sectors within the Defence Industrial Corridors, seven testing facilities were approved – four in Tamil Nadu and three in Uttar Pradesh https://www.bseindia.com/ .
The MoU for three facilities in Tamil Nadu were signed on 2 Jul https://www.gifas.fr/en/ .
The DTIS provides up to 75% government funding as ‘Grant-in-Aid’, with the remaining 25% funded by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPVs), comprising Indian private entities and State and Central Governments https://sbi.com.in/ .
For the UAS testing facility, Keltron, a government of Kerala undertaking, is the lead SPV member, with some private sector companies being the consortium members. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) http://bel-india.in and India Optel Limited (IOL) https://www.indiaoptel.in/ are the lead SPV members in the EW and EO testing facilities respectively.
Upon the completion of the project, they will provide advanced testing equipment and services to both government and private industry, thus giving a boost to ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence https://www.ibef.org/ . Fiinews.com
