The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor will be formally launched later this week in Trichy with new defence products, investments and a defence innovation hub to improve design and manufacturing capabilities.
The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor will be formally launched on January 20 with three main events taking place on that day, said Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary Defence Production. These events include the announcement of new investments by Defence PSUs, launch of new defence products and the defence innovation hub in Coimbatore, reported Economic Times.
The formal launch of the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor follows the launch of projects for the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor in Aligarh last August. The two corridors are based on existing defence production facilities, and will set up new industry clusters to create a supply chain of MSMEs and manufacturers with testing facilities and export facilitation centres.
Speaking about how the southern corridor is different from the one in UP, Kumar told ET that in terms of policy it is the same but, in terms of the nature of defence activity, Tamil Nadu is a major defence manufacturing state in the country. He further commented that Tamil Nadu is famous for automobile components and has a much stronger manufacturing state and has a strong IT presence.
Kumar further informed that Tamil Nadu was chosen over Bangalore and other southern states for the defence corridor, since Tamil Nadu is bigger than Bangalore and has the best quality of automobile components.
The government will provide a maximum support of Rs 20 crore to the facility which will be set up by (Coimbatore District Small Industries Association) CODISSIA, which according to Kumar, has a business of Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore in defence production in Coimbatore. The body will be indigenising items for the defence PSUs.
