Tata Power recently started work to set up its Rs. 450 crore defence manufacturing facility in Karnataka with the state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah laying its foundation stone.

The foundation stone laying ceremony for the greenfield Defence Production facility of The Tata Power Co Ltd, Strategic Engineering Division (Tata Power SED) at Vemagal (Kolar District), Karnataka, was held recently,Tata Power said in a statement.

According to the statement, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah laid the foundation stone of the facility.

Tata Power SED has a dedicated R&D set up at Mumbai and a 10.5 acres Defence Manufacturing facility at Electronics City, Bengaluru, operational since 1986.

Over the next one year, the Division is making an investment of Rs. 450 crore at its new 50-acre Vemagal facility to create a state-of-the-art integrated digital design to manufacturing facility for large systems engineering and integration, the company said.

The facility is the largest strategic electronics manufacturing unit approved under the MSIPS program of DeitY, Government of India.

Also, the Karnataka government has been approached for additional land adjacent to the present site at Vemagal under the state’s new industrial policy.

The facility will have ferrous/ non-ferrous structure manufacturing, precision engineering and machining capabilities, system/ shelter integration bays and specialised manufacturing/ test facilities for electronic warfare systems, inertial navigation systems and RF Systems among others.

Additionally, it will cater to optronics and night vision equipment including tube and detectors manufacturing.

This integrated systems engineering facility will be able to deliver artillery and air defence weapon systems; network centric systems such as tactical Communication/ battlefield management systems; integrated electronic warfare systems and radar/ sensor Suites catering to the land, naval and airborne warfare requirements of the Indian Armed Forces.

The facility will also be able to deliver systems for homeland security and is geared to produce clean energy solutions for defence as well as civilian use.

The Vemagal investment is in line with the company’s commitment towards the Make in India initiative and the facility will be dedicated to the national effort of Swavalamban in the strategic defence sector, Tata Power SED CEO Rahul Chaudhry said.