BrahMos Complex back on track again

[thestringshredder]

After months of delays, things appear to be falling in place with regard to the land for the missile firm BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (BATL). At a meeting held here on Friday, the State Government decided to speed things up to allocate 20 acres of land to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Muttathara here. As per an earlier agreement, the IAF will hand over its land in Chackai, adjacent to the BATL unit, to the missile firm, only after the government provided it with a substitute land elsewhere.

The meeting called by Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan has cleared phase I works on the Muttathara land, which include electrification, water supply and road construction. These works are to be taken up by State Government agencies. Of the 20 acres earmarked for the IAF, three acres will be developed by BrahMos and the rest by the State Government, sources said. The land swap is crucial for BATL if it is to increase its footprint in Thiruvananthapuram.

The 7.5-acre IAF plot in Chackai currently houses the Armed Forces Signals Unit and a small portion of it was transferred to BATL under a ‘work permission’. It was there that Defence Minister A K Antony had inaugurated a Missile Integration Complex in November last year. But the rest of the land and the land deed are yet to be handed over to BATL owing to the delay in the transfer of Muttathara land to the IAF. The State Government had been searching high and low for the substitute land since 2009. “Things are moving now,” BrahMos Aerospace Space Pvt Ltd (BAPL) CEO A Sivathanu Pillai, who attended the meeting, told ‘Express’. “The Chief Secretary reviewed the progress of the Muttathara project.

The State Government has to now provide power, water supply etc at the plot in Muttathara. The IAF land in Chackai next to our unit is sufficient for our future projects,” he said. Officials of the IAF’s Southern Air Command, BATL, Kerala Water Authority and Kerala State Electricity Board were present at the meeting.

Link - BrahMos Complex back on track again | idrw.org