Tremendous opportunity exists in Odisha for the state to turn into a defence manufacturing hub even as India was marching ahead towards self-reliance in production of equipment and components for use of the armed forces, defence experts said on Saturday.

“There is tremendous amount of opportunity in Odisha where a Defence Manufacturing Corridor can come up as the state has every ingredient to make such a venture successful,” Lt. Gen. Chandi Prasad Mohanty, former Vice Chief of Army Staff, said.

Lt. Gen. Mohanty was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the ‘Mission: Make in Odisha for Defence Industry—Opportunities Galore’ conclave held at the Siksha ‘O’Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here.

The conclave was jointly organised by the Odisha Corporate Foundation (OCF), SOA and SOA Centre for Innovation and Incubation (SOA-CII), with the objective of bringing entrepreneurs and industry professionals on a single platform with the defence experts.

The inaugural session was also addressed by Mr. Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Member of Parliament, Air Marshal D.K. Patnaik, former AOC-in-C, Eastern Air Command, Dr. B.K. Das, Director General, Electronic and Communication System, DRDO, Maj. Gen. Ramesh Chandra Padhi, former Additional Surveyor General who is also the Chairman of OCF, Brig. (Dr.) L.C. Patnaik, Co-chairman, OCF and Mr. Tushar Sahu, former Executive Director, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

Lt. Gen. Mohanty said the conclave was a platform to place Odisha as a defence manufacturing location as it has enormous amount of mineral wealth, 480-km long coastline, road network and huge number of trained workforce.

Odisha already had several defence installations like the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) at Sunabeda, Ordnance Factory in Balangir, Interim Test Range (ITR) and Proof and Experimental Extablishment (PXE) at Chandipur and Air Defence College at Gopalpur. The state can be turned into a defence manufacturing hub as no such industrial corridor exists in eastern India, he said.

The magnitude of defence manufacturing can be imagined from the fact that a single aircraft carrier cost Rs. 23,000 crore which is double the amount of the annual budget of a state like Sikkim while an Arjun tank cost Rs. 75 crore and a combat helicopter Rs. 110 crore, Lt. Gen. Mohanty said.

The new government in Odisha had targeted to attract investment to the tune of Rs. 5 lakh crore, he said adding it had created a land bank comprising 160,000 acres while the state was surplus with power and water.

Complimenting the efforts to make Odisha a defence manufacturing hub, Mr. Sarangi said the need will be to take this initiative to its logical end. “Your efforts can bear fruit because a favourable government is in the saddle in Odisha at present,” he said.

Dr. Das, who was earlier Director of ITR, Chandipur, said when the Trishul missile, with a range of ten km, was being developed by DRDO, the components had to be imported from the USA and Israel. When the supply of needed components stopped, India decided to manufacture the same indigenously and achieved great success.

Thereafter, when the Agni missile was developed with a range of 5000 km, all the components used in it were developed at home. Every equipment and component used in radar and telemetry systems are manufactured in India today, he said,

Brig. (Dr.) Pattnaik said India needed to be strong in defence to become a major global power and the scope for manufacturing was immense. He said HAL at Sunabeda had received an order of Rs. 26,000 crore for manufacturing aircraft engines.

The day-long conclave had several panel discussions on relevant subjects linked to defence manufacturing. Mr. Tushar Sahu proposed the vote of thanks.