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DefExpo, the exhibition of military hardware held in Delhi every two years that brings the global arms bazaar to India, is being moved out of the national capital.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s home state, Goa, will host the next DefExpo slated for February 17-20, 2016.
Delhi has hosted the first eight DefExpo, the last one held at Pragati Maidan in 2014.
Defence ministry sources said they were scouting for a new home for DefExpo because the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), that runs the international trade fair complex at Pragati Maidan, had asked for the exhibition to be moved out.
But the decision to organise the next event in Goa is yet to be explained. In the national capital, where representatives of nearly all major arms makers descend for the exhibition, it is also a networking event. Delegates usually club their visit to the expo with meetings with bureaucrats and ministers.
The 9th Land, Naval & Internal Homeland Security Systems Exhibition – 2016, which is the full name of DefExpo India 2016, has been given land at Betul, about 24km from Margao.
Parrikar was chief minister of Goa before moving to New Delhi. The Defence Exhibition Organisation (DEO), that organises the fair, had asked the Goa government for land.
This would mean that the entire infrastructure for the military hardware that is displayed will have to be set up in the western Indian state. The infrastructure already exists in Pragati Maidan that is in the heart of Delhi.
According to Freelance Journalist ” Vinayak Shetty,”, Margao City which is just 20kms from Betul is well connected by Rail network and has Goa’s biggest and busiest Railway station which can be used to move Heavy Equipments and Weapons systems for Defexpo 2016 at ease and has been used as Junction for South Western Railways and Konkan Railway.
Good news for idrw.org readers is that Vinayak Shetty has agreed to cover Defexpo 2016 for the first time exclusively for idrw.org which will happen in 06th – 09th February 2016.
DefExpo 2016 Weapons show moves out of Delhi | idrw.org