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By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 19: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish a dedicated Defence Industry  Corridor and Aeronautical University in the state.

In a letter to Modi, Patnaik said Odisha has a wide-ranging ecosystem and state-of-the-art industrial infrastructure facilities for indigenous design, development, and manufacturing in defence and aerospace sector.

Referring the state’s strength in this regard, the CM said that Odisha is the largest producer of steel, stainless steel, and aluminium in the country with the availability of defence and aerospace grade products from the mother plants of the SAIL, the Tata Steel, the Hindalco industries and the NALCO.

In the letter to Prime Minsiter, Patnaik also talked about the available infrastructure in the state like manufacturing, operation and maintenance, testing and research ecosystem in the form of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Aero Engine Facility at Damonjodi in Koraput district, the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, the DRDO Laboratory at Balasore and the Ordnance Factory at Bolangir.

He further added that Odisha has more than one lakh acres of industrial land bank and dedicated industrial region to support downstream industries in aerospace and defence sector.

The Chief Minister also mentioned about the large pool of skilled manpower and presence of national institutes of higher learning.

“The state is also in advanced stages of promulgating a dedicated defence and aerospace manufacturing policy to promote cluster based development of the industry. In view of these unique advantages in the state, the overall cost of production of defence and aerospace products would be very clearly competitive,” Patnaik wrote in the letter.

Pleading to set up a dedicated defence industry corridor in the state and aeronautical university in collaboration with the HAL, the CM said, “The Odisha Government will ensure unmatched facilitation support for quick and successful establishment of both the Defence Industry Corridor and Aeronautical University in the state”.