Besides Indian Army and IAF, private
defence players will also use the firing range The Gujarat government is
working on the Indian Army’s request, to set up a large 200-square kilometers
of multi-weapon firing range, at Dholera Smart City - about 100 kilometers from
Ahmedabad.
Jai Prakash Shivahare, Managing
Director of Dholera Industrial City Development Ltd (DICDL) stated that the
said firing range will be built at Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) on a
land area of about 200 square kilometres (sq km). The range will primarily be
used by Indian Army and Indian Air Force, but will also be open for private
players for testing their defence products.
"The Indian Army has been looking
for a firing range. Also, we have received inquiries from defence manufacturing
players such as Baba Kalyani Group for the same. Based on their requirement for
a firing range with 25 kilometers length and five kilometers width, we have
identified a land area in Dholera SIR," Shivahare said here on the
sidelines of the second Gujarat Aviation Conclave 2019 organised by
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday.
He said that once the firing range is
operational, it would help attract other defence manufacturing investments in
the Dholera region.
The project has received an
in-principle approval from the concerned authorities including the state
government.
The identified land for the firing
range includes government-owned land as well as some private land too. "We
will compensate the private owners for the acquisition of the land. The firing
range will be close to the coastline in the Gulf of Cambay,†he commented.
According to Shivahare, there are
currently only a few firing ranges available in the country to test the defence
products. These include Devlali near Nashik in Maharashtra, Pokhran in
Rajasthan, Balasore in Odisha, Trichy in Tamil Nadu, Ichchapore in West Bengal
among others for testing various categories of weapons and ammunition.
Initially, the Government was
considering two sites - Kutch and Dholera - for the firing range. But
eventually, the authorities had selected Dholera.
Source by;- https://www.dnaindia.com/