In a major boost to India’s defence capabilities, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate a BrahMos supersonic missile manufacturing unit in Lucknow on May 11. The facility, a joint venture between DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, aims to produce 80–100 missiles annually and is part of the Defence Industrial Corridor announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018.
The ₹300 crore unit, spread over 80 acres, was initiated in 2021 and falls within the Lucknow node of the corridor. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPIEDA) has allotted 117 hectares to 12 companies in this node, including Aerolloy Technologies, whose components are used in Chandrayaan missions and fighter aircraft.
The corridor includes six nodes: Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot. With around 60% of the total project land already allotted, the state government is preparing to launch Phase 2 in Aligarh, where 200 additional acres will be offered due to high investor demand. In Jhansi, half of its 1,000-hectare land bank is already saturated.
Global investors are being courted, with a delegation led by UP Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh currently in Athens. Notable defence companies such as Bharat Dynamics, Tata Technologies, Adani Defence, Ananth Technologies, and Genser Aerospace are participating in the corridor across various nodes.
IIT Kanpur and IIT BHU are also involved as research and development partners, and over ₹28,000 crore in investment proposals have already been received. Despite earlier land challenges in Agra due to the Taj Trapezium Zone, officials confirm that those issues have now been resolved.
The inauguration is expected to significantly accelerate development and attract further defence sector investment into Uttar Pradesh.
