KOCHI: India’s first defence park, coming up in Palakkad, has got a big boost with leading companies in the defence and aerospace sector such as BEML, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) agreeing to ask its suppliers to establish their component manufacturing facilities in the 60-acre park.
The defence park is established as part of Centre’s flagship ‘Make in India’ programme and the state’s ‘Make in Kerala’ project.
Civil works for the Kinfra Defence Park in Ottapalam, which is going on, will be over by January 2019, and the park will be launched by March 2019, top officers said.
The project is intended to create a defence park with all modern facilities exclusively for defence equipment manufacturers with assistance from the Centre’s Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation (MIIU) scheme. The project’s total outlay, including the cost of land, is `191 crore.
“The defence park is aimed at MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) as we have only 60 acres. We have held talks with leading companies such as BEML, HAL, and BEL. They have agreed to tell their suppliers to establish their facilities in the park. We are confident several small and micro units will set up their units in the defence park,” said Kinfra managing director K A Santhosh Kumar.
Once the big companies in the sector agree to source the components from the greenfield project, many small component makers are likely to establish their facilities in the park, the Kinfra officers reckon.
The Centre has sanctioned `50 crore for establishing the park while the remaining amount is provided by the state government. “We have already utilised the `35 crore from the Centre for the ongoing civil works,” said Kumar.
The focus area of the park includes components of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft; defence navigation products; components of tactical vehicles, submarine building; components of warship/naval; defence IT systems and solutions; avionics; tactical communication system; space robotics maintenance, microsatellite etc.
Kumar said a discussion has also been held with a Nellore-based association of South Indian electronics manufacturing unit for encouraging its members to set up their facilities at the park.
In the case of BRML, Santhosh Kumar said a rail siding will be established from its plant at Kanjikode to the defence park so that it can do the finishing work of its Tatra trucks and Metro coaches, and transport it via the rail route to Bengaluru.
Currently, all the parts are assembled at Bengaluru after transporting it via trailers.
Kinfra general manager (projects) T Unnikrishnan said the marketing blitz to woo companies to the defence park will begin soon after the civil works are over.
Officials said a team from state government, Kinfra and industry bodies such as the CII and FICCI will go on a roadshow in coming months to market the park to prospective companies and among Malayali expats keen on setting up a unit for the defence and aerospace sector.