Megha plans Rs 500 crores defence manufacturing unit

Hyderabad: City-based infrastructure major Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), which has operations across 20 countries, on Monday announced its mega foray into defence equipment manufacturing by revealing its plans to set up a Rs 500-crore defence manufacturing facility in the city.

In a statement, the infrastructure major said it received the approvals from the Ministry of Home and Ministry of Commerce and Industry to establish a defence manufacturing facility at Jeedimetla, Hyderabad.

With an objective to produce weapons, vehicles, ancillaries and arms, MEIL has applied for permission under Defence Procurement Policy 2020 which is a part of the Make in India initiative.

"After careful examination of MEIL's capabilities under various government stipulations, the central government issued the approvals. MEIL group will set up a manufacturing unit with a capital outlay of Rs. 500 crores at various stages," MEIL said in the statement.

MEIL began its journey with the construction and infrastructure sector and expanded its wings into oil and gas, power, solar power, aviation sectors. It is now entering the defence equipment production.

"With the necessary approvals in place, Megha group is setting up most modern manufacturing facilities to produce various cutting-edge defence equipment indigenously at our upcoming new facility in Hyderabad.

I am happy that Megha group is fulfilling Prime Minister's vision and dream of Make in India initiative,"said Srinivas Bommareddy, president, MEIL.

The upcoming MEIL's defence manufacturing unit will produce ancillaries to the combat vehicles, light combat vehicles, armoured engineer recovery vehicles, armoured recovery vehicles.

This unit will also produce soldiers carrying vehicles (APC), infantry combat vehicles (ICV), armed multi-purpose vehicles, mine-laying vehicles, bridge laying vehicle, all-terrain light combat vehicle (ACTV). It will also manufacture missiles, multi-barrel rocket launcher, machine guns, rockets, cannons and equipment to missiles.

IComm Tele Limited, a Megha group company, is already contributing to the national defence institutions in science and technology fields.

Apart from defence electronics and communications, the company is also engaged in the power distribution and transmission and solar power sector.

It developed and supplied advanced communication radios, jammers, EW shelters, antennas, electronic warfare containers, wind profiles and radars. India's first mobile virology lab to deal with Corona epidemic developed and launched in April by IComm.