TN's defence corridor will link Chennai, Bengaluru: Sitharaman

New Delhi: Hours after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the Union Budget on Thursday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed that the first ever defence corridor will be built in Tamil Nadu, which will link Chennai and Bengaluru.

“Now that the (budget) announcement has been made for defence corridor, the first one will be built starting at Tamil Nadu, linking Chennai and Bengaluru. Announcement for the second corridor will soon be made,” said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

While announcing the Union Budget in the Parliament Arun Jaitley proposed setting up two defence industrial corridors in the next fiscal.

"We have taken measures to develop two defence industrial production corridors in the country. The government will bring out an industry- friendly defence production policy in 2018 to promote the domestic production by public sector, the private sector, and the MSMEs," Jaitley said.

The government has opened a private investment in the defence production including liberalizing in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the Finance Minister informed.

Thanking Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the budget, the defence minister said, “We are thankful to the finance minister for actually giving us a very reasoned out budget, and such financial accommodation where, even if you take the Revised Estimate figures of last year, it’s a 5.9 percent increase.”

She added that if one looks at the Budgetary Estimates (BE) of last year then there is a 7.9 percent increase.

The finance minister has also mentioned the emphasis for ‘Make in India’ and making Defence Production a priority in this country.