HYDERABAD: On the 85th birth anniversary of former president and renowned scientist APJ Abdul Kalam, a life-size bronze statue of the iconic personality will be unveiled at the Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL) here on Thursday. The Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) has already announced that its missile complex here, where Kalam had worked for a long time, would be named after him on that day as a tribute to the Missile Man.
Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao , along with the DRDO chairman and DRDL director, will attend the function on the DRDL campus in the city where the bronze statue of Kalam will be unveiled. KCR had earlier suggested to the central government to rename the DRDO complex after Abdul Kalam.
The former president had served as the director of DRDL for ten years from 1982 to 92 and led the Integrated Guided Missile Programme. The missile complex comprises Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and Research Centre Imarat (RCI), considered a brainchild of Kalam.
Kalam also worked as a scientist and administrator at DRDO for four decades. He was one of the key personalities behind the development of intermediate ballistic range missile Agni and surface-to-surface missile Prithvi.