DRDO unit near city gets chemical war defence site status

Nagpur: The lesser known DRDO unit at Borkhedi has been declared as a chemical warfare defence establishment. This happened after inspection was undertaken by a team of Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Warfare (OPCW), an intergovernmental global organisation which certifies that only the stated activities are carried out at the site. The team had visited the facility in 2021.
The inspection was carried out to ensure that the operations carried out at the site conform to what has been stated by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In other words, the facility is not engaged in activities related to chemical weapons. This was disclosed by director of Gwalior-based Defence Research and Development Establishment — one of the DRDO labs. The official was talking to news persons during the 108th Indian Science Congress.
The Borkhedi unit is a single small scale (SSSF) facility generally used to train troops to deal with an eventual chemical attack. Some antidotes too have been developed following work at the facility here, said sources.
The DRDO unit at Borkhedi had always led to speculation of being a top secret facility for the forces. The facility was in news around a decade ago when waste from Bhopal’s Union Carbide plant was to be shifted here for disposal. This was stopped following a public interest litigation.
Work on the facility had begun in 2006 and was completed by 2012. Finally, the OPCW inspection gave it a stamp of approval.
Earlier, while talking to news persons, DRDO’s director general (technology management) Hari Babu Srivastava said the agency has also developed drones with guns. These are drones which would be fitted with small arms and capable of reaching the enemy position and fire. Although there is a feature of auto-firing, as a matter of ethics, the fire will be initiated from remote control after ensuring the enemy presence, he said. Srivastava said the DRDO is also developing the light combat aircraft (LCA) Mark-II and an LCA for the Navy.