Maha fast-tracks cluster for defence manufacturing

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 12

The Maharashtra Government has fast-tracked the setting up of a defence equipment manufacturing cluster at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN).

Sources in the government said the cluster, which would generate 50,000 jobs, had already drawn interest from prominent investors and defence contractors. Earlier this week, the government allotted 20 acres for the project. Officials said the project would begin soon.

The Vidarbha Defence Industrial Hub, a special purpose vehicle, will construct the manufacturing unit at Sector 10 in MIHAN where the cluster is coming up, the sources said. The initial investment involved has been estimated at Rs 235 crore.

Tata Technologies Ltd will be investing Rs 70 crore in a project to impart skills to personnel who would be absorbed by micro, small and medium enterprises. The training for technicians who will be employed at the defence cluster has already begun and they will be absorbed when the first units are set up in a year’s time, sources said.

MIHAN is a mega industrial project spread over 4,300 hectares and was inaugurated 15 years ago.