BEL to set up plant in Sathya Sai district

Vijayawada: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) director Dr P Parthasarathi said the BEL will set up its plant in Sathyasai district in Rayalaseema region. He said BEL is one of the important electronic companies of the country and producing a wide variety of products, most importantly related to the defence sector.

Speaking to media here on Sunday, Dr Parthasarathi said BEL has eight production units and 22 static business units across India. Referring to South India, he said the BEL has presence in a Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Machilipatnam of Andhra Pradesh and now is setting up a unit at Palasamudram in Sathya Sai district.

He said 914 acre land was acquired for setting up the plant for manufacturing of missile and radar testing equipment. Investment committee of BEL decided to release Rs 384 crore for construction of the first phase of unit at Sathya Sai district.

Dr Parthasarathi said technical and administrative problems were solved for setting up of the plant. BEL was set up in 1956 for manufacturing one product at Bengaluru that was imported from France earlier. Now the company is producing 350 products for the needs of defence sector of the country. He said out of 350 products made by BEL, around 50 per cent were developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the 50 per cent are self-developed by BEL.

The BEL director said India has 5,200 km coastline and 3,600 km land border out of which 50 per cent is plain areas and the remaining has high attitudes. Defence personnel need equipment and technology to safeguard the borders effectively. He said the Machilipatnam unit is manufacturing night vision equipment to meet the needs of armed forces. Since there is a great demand for night vision lenses, the government is planning one more unit in Krishna district, Dr Parthasarathi added.