Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday laid the foundation stone for a Defence Technology & Test Centre (DTTC) and a BrahMos manufacturing centre to be established by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Lucknow.
“A first-of-its-kind Defence Technologies & Test Centre (DTTC), over approximately 22 acres is being set up to accelerate the growth of the defence and aerospace manufacturing clusters in Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC),” a Defence Ministry statement said.
It will consist of six sub-centres — Deep-Tech Innovation & Startup Incubation Centre, Design & Simulation Centre, Testing & Evaluation Centre, Centre for Industry 4.0/Digital Manufacturing, Skill Development Centre and Business Development Centre.
The Brahmos manufacturing centre, announced by BrahMos Aerospace, is a modern, state-of-the-art facility in the Lucknow node of UP DIC, the statement said. It will cover over 200 acres and produce the BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) cruise missile variant under development. “It would be ready over the next two to three years and will commence production at a rate of 80-100 BRAHMOS-NG missiles per year.”
At the event, Mr. Singh said, “At the time of its inauguration, we had estimated an investment of ₹3,732 crore. Investment of more than ₹1,400 crore has already been received and the process is progressing rapidly.”
The DTTC is being set up to implement the MoU exchanged between the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) and the DRDO during the DefExpo-2020 in Lucknow.
The DTTC will follow the design-build-test-learn cycle for technology consultancy and hand-holding of the deep-tech start-ups and industries. “It will facilitate industries through establishing a centralised state-of-the-art technology infrastructure which will accelerate the product development and reduce the induction time & the turnaround time for the futuristic systems development through its six sub-centres,” the statement said.
