The State Government has requested the Centre to sanction defence industrial production corridor in Telangana as it has the requisite infrastructure for the facility.
Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao made a strong pitch for the corridor outlining the advantages Telangana and its capital Hyderabad have for such a facility. Telangana stood number one in terms of the ease of doing business parameters. Establishment of defence industrial production corridor would give a fillip to the manufacturing sector and generate jobs for locals.
In a letter addressed to the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, Mr. Rama Rao recalled that the Centre proposed to establish two such corridors in the 2018-19 budget and one corridor was proposed to be set between Chennai - Bengaluru and the other one in Bundelkhand. Telangana is strategically located and is home to several public sector defence enterprises and DRDO labs, including the RCI, DRDL, DMRL and Midhani, he said.
The State already had a vibrant ecosystem in private sector with several reputed companies in aerospace, defence sector, including the Tata Advanced Systems Limited, MTAR, ATL and others setting up base here. These industries support several prestigious national defence and space programmes and the State has accessibility in the form of greenfield international airport, rated among the top in the segment, he said.
It also has regional airports at Begumpet, Ramagundam and Warangal under the Airports Authority of India while the Dundigal and Hakimpet airports are being managed by the Indian Air Force. Aerospace and defence have been identified as priority industries by the government and the State already has two operational aerospace manufacturing parks. The government is also planning to set up a larger aerospace defence park at Eliminedu and create another aerospace cluster within the national investments and manufacturing zone proposed in Medak district.
On the human resources front, the State had 26 universities, 705 engineering colleges and 280 polytechnics, he said.
