Gujarat may soon get a defense corridor

Gandhinagar: Gujarat is the host of the union government’s Defense Exhibition DefExpo2022, to be held from October 18 to 22. But in addition to that, the state government is also hopeful that the center will accept its demand for a defense industrial corridor. The exhibition was earlier to be held between March 10 and 14 but it got postponed.

In 2020, then Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani wrote to the central government requesting the allocation of a defense industries corridor (DIC) and other facilities. At the same, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were granted DICs.

The letter, written in Rupani’s term, reads, “Despite several requests, Gujarat has not yet been allocated a DIC or any defense public sector unit (PSU) or any activity of DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) laboratories.”

The letter further states, “Gujarat is an industrial state and has a very conducive environment for the defense industry. Gujarat has a good environment for multiple defense corridors such as Kutch, Rajkot, Ahmedabad (Sanand), Surendranagar, Surat, Bharuch, and other places.”

“The Gujarat government is keen to promote the defense industry in the state. Gujarat government can provide land and other facilities at the Dholera special investment region (SIR) also if the government of India proposes a defense industrial corridor in the Dholera SIR,” it added.

Now, in the latest development, a senior official said that the state government has again taken up the matter with the central government. And we are hopeful that GOI will consider our request as it will attract defense manufacturing units to Gujarat.