Govt mulling special zones for def manufacturing: Parrikar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said the government was looking at creating special zones for defence manufacturing.

"The ministry is considering setting up special zones for the defence sector," Parrikar said during a function at the industry lobby Indian Merchants' Chamber here this evening.

Stating that a proposal in this regard is under consideration, the minister said he hopes that a policy would be finalised soon.

"I personally hope that within the next three months we will come up with a policy regarding this. But things take time as there are many other ministries involved in finalising any policy," he said.

Parrikar further said the results of the recent decisions on defence production will be visible over the next two-three years.

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On weapons procurement, the minister said, "Bofors are good guns. But after the scam, for nearly 31 years no such guns had been bought for the artillery. We have taken a decision to purchase new guns, but it will take at least a year for the weapons to come."

Parrikar expects mass-scale supply of guns from the ordnance factories or from private players from next year, other products like helicopters will come in by 2017-18.

The minister claimed that since the NDA government came to power a year ago, the defence preparedness has improved massively.

Reeling out CAG numbers, the minister said, "As per the 2013 CAG report, the availability of ammunition as of March 2013 was below the 'minimum acceptable risk level' in respect of 125 out of 170 types of ammunition. In the past one year, we have managed to bring it down to 66."

Parrikar further said the government is also taking steps to ensure that public sector defence units procure more from small and medium units.

"Under the defence procurement policy, nearly 20 percent of the raw materials have to be procured by the public sector defence units from SMEs. Currently, we are buying equipment from original equipment manufacturers, but going forward, we will ensure that more locally-made products are procured," Parrikar said.