KOZHIKODE: In the wake of the Kerala Government not responding to a request of the Naval Armament Depot (NAD) to allocate additional land at Angamaly for their second phase project, the defence unit has decided to shift the second phase of its armament depot project to Tamil Nadu. The NAD has sought additional 500 acres of land, identified by it at Manjapra in Angamaly in Ernakulam district, for setting up the state-of-the-art arms depot exclusively for the Navy’s air directorate.
Currently, the NAD has a 530-acre campus in Aluva which, apart from handling latest rockets and missiles, also has facilities to manufacture parts of different weapons. Senior defence officers said they have been waiting for the state government’s response for quite a long time, but nothing has materialised so far. “We have now received a communication from the MoD, saying the project be shifted to Ervadi in Tamil Nadu,” the officers said.
When contacted, NAD general manager Puneet confirmed there has been a discussion on shifting the project to Ervadi in Tamil Nadu. “Let us see how things turn out. We are yet to hear from the state government,” he said. Apart from the Aluva campus, there are NADs located in Visakhapatnam, Goa, Mumbai, Sunbeda and Balasore in Orissa.