MEIL Group Forays into Defence Weapons Production in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad headquartered multi-disciplinary infrastructure conglomerate Megha Engineering and Infrastructures (Meil) group has announced foray into defence weapons manufacturing by setting up a Greenfield production facility in Telangana involving an initial capital outlay of Rs 500 crore.

Meil, which reported a net profit of Rs 2,984 crore on an income of Rs 19,492 crore while enjoying a robust order book of over Rs 85,000 crore in 2018-19, currently has interests in hydrocarbons, power, aviation, EV buses, irrigation and drinking water, among others.

In a statement on Monday, the infrastructure conglomerate with presence in 20 countries, announced obtaining approvals to manufacture weapons and equipment for the defence sector. Meil had sought approvals to produce weapons, vehicles, ancillaries and arms under Defence procurement policy 2020, a part of the Make in India initiative, and obtained clearances from the Ministry of Home and Ministry of Commerce and Industry to set up a manufacturing facility at Jeedimetla in Hyderabad outskirts.

Meil is among the few Indian companies to obtain approvals from the government to manufacture defence weapons and equipment.

The proposed defence manufacturing facility of Meil will take up production of ancillaries to the combat vehicles, light combat vehicles, armoured engineer recovery vehicles, armoured recovery vehicles. The production facility will also manufacture soldiers carrying vehicles (APC), infantry combat vehicles (ICV), armed multi-purpose vehicles, mine-laying vehicles, bridge laying vehicle, all-terrain light combat vehicle (ACTV).

Further, the upcoming facility in the Hyderabad outskirts will also manufacture missiles, multi-barrel rocket launchers, machine guns, rockets, cannons and equipment to missiles, said Meil.

Meil president Srinivas Bommareddy said the company will be “setting up most modern manufacturing facilities to produce various cutting-edge defence equipment indigenously” at its upcoming facility at Hyderabad.

Srinivas said Meil is setting up the defence equipment production facility in partnership with foreign technology and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) giants. He said apart from participating in the tenders to be floated by India’s defence ministry, Meil will also export its defence equipment going forward.

“We have tied up with leading (foreign) OEMs,” Srinivas ET, while refusing to divulge their identity owing to “confidentiality clauses.” Admitting that the foreign players would also invest in the defence equipment entity to pick up an equity stake at a later stage, he said the proposed manufacturing facility at Hyderabad will take off in the next 24 months.

In April, the Meil group firm iCOMM Tele, which is into defence electronics and communications technologies, has teamed up with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and others to develop mobile virology research and diagnostics laboratory to test Covid-19 samples.

iCOMM Tele also supplies advanced communication radios, jammer amplifiers, and containers to missile programs like Brahmos, Akash, PGAD, Pralay, MSRAM, and electronic warfare systems. This Meil firm had also developed wind profile radars to the Indian Air Force.

Apart from defence electronics and communications technologies, this firm is also into power transmission and distribution, solar and oil and gas sectors as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company and currently executing 750 MW of solar projects across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Punjab.

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Source: ET

Image Courtesy;Filter Kaapi Live

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