Reliance Infra plans Rs10,000-cr small arms project in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, which recently attained debt-free status and announced plans to raise fresh funds to drive business, on Tuesday said it will be investing Rs10,000 crore in an integrared defence project in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district.

The project, called Dhirubhai Ambani Defence City (DADC), will be developed on a 1,000 acre land in Watad Industrial Area of Ratnagiri, Maharashtra over the next ten years, according to the company.

The integrated project, which will be the largest in the country, will focus on the manufacture of explosives, ammunition and small arms - both for civilian and military applications - manly for exports, the company said.

DADC will manufacture a wide range of large and small calibre arms as well as ammunition, including terminally guided munitions. The project once started, will open the scope for potential joint ventures. 

In fact, Reliance Infra said, it has identified about six leading global defence companies for collaboration and joint ventures. The company did not name possible venture partners.

Jai Armaments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, holds a licence for the manufacture of arms and ammunition.

Reliance Defence, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, already has joint ventures with French defence firms Dassault Aviation and Thales. The joint ventures operating from Dhirubhai Ambani Defence & Aerospace Park (DADAP) in MIHAN, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, mainly caters to the export markets.

DADAP, which is located in a 300-acre Areospace Park at MIHAN SEZ, is intended to provide a manufacturing ecosystem for aircraft structures through backward integration as envisaged by the government’s programme to support local manufacturing. 

Reliance is in the process of establishing a JV Company for Indigenous design and manufacture of MALE UAVs at its facility at Silvassa.

Reliance Defence is also in the process of establishing a state-of-the-art facility at MIHAN, for underwater weapons, including heavy weight torpedoes, anti torpedo detection suite etc.