New Delhi: In what can be seen as a major accomplishment, the Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh has taken a steady lead, going on to become the first out of the 6 nodes or centres to get its first lease deed done in the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project.
The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the state government-run nodal agency for the defence corridor project, has completed the first lease deed in Aligarh and allotted more than 55.4 hectares of land to 19 defence manufacturing companies, which would be investing more than Rs 1,245 crores in the district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon lay the foundation stone for it.
Meanwhile, the work of constructing boundary walls, building a powerhouse, and a 4-lane road at a cost of Rs 10.21 crore has kick-started in Aligarh, confirmed Avneesh Awasthi, the Additional Chief Secretary Home and Chief Executive Officer of UPEIDA.
Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh becomes the first district in the country to get its first lease deed. Besides, Anchor Research Lab LLP, a strong player in the Defence and Aerospace Industry, has been allotted 10 hectares of land in Aligarh. The company will be investing Rs 550 crore in the district.
The UP Defence Industrial Corridor projects were announced in Aligarh in August 2018. Land for this ambitious project was set aside in Andla village in Khair Block in Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh.
After opening up private investment and liberalizing foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence production, the BJP government, during the 2018-2019 national budget announced the establishment of two Defence Industrial production corridors. Indigenous Defence manufacturing is one of the key focus areas of PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiatives. The first Defence Production Corridor is planned to be established in Tamil Nadu and the second one in Uttar Pradesh.
The first corridor called as Tamil Nadu Defence Quad will extend from Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli. The second defence industrial corridor was announced on the occasion of the Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018. At the summit, PM Modi had said: “of one of the two defence industrial corridors mentioned in the budget, one is proposed in the Bundelkhand region of the state which will bring an investment of Rs. 20,000 crore and generate employment avenues for 2.5 lakh people.”
The project envisages building land banks for defence companies to set up their production plants around six nodes in the state, notably in the backward Bundelkhand area too. The 6 nodes – Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Aligarh and Chitrakoot – will be connected to various upcoming expressways which would provide better connectivity to these places.
