Jhansi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project worth Rs 400 crores in Jhansi.

The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the much-awaited significant project on the concluding three-day 'Rashtra Raksha Samarpan Parv' event being organized by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) along with the government of Uttar Pradesh here in the city.

The Centre has decided to set up two Defence Industrial Corridors in the country-- one in Tamil Nadu and the other in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor has nodes at Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Lucknow and Kanpur.

For the Jhansi node of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, the state government has made nearly 1,034 hectares of land made available.

Bharat Dynamics Ltd, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU), is setting up a plant for the propulsion system for Anti-Tank Guided Missiles in the Jhansi node. It will be spread over 183 acres of land in Jhansi. The facility will involve an investment of Rs 400 crores.

The project is expected to provide direct employment to 150 people and indirect employment to nearly 500 people.

Besides, the Prime Minister dedicated and launched several new initiatives of MoD to the nation in a grand ceremony organized in the precincts of Jhansi Fort.

The Ministry of Defence has taken several steps to promote 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' in defence in the last two years. These include the issue of positive indigenization lists, earmarking of 64 per cent of capital procurement budget for the domestic industry, promotion of start-ups under Innovations For Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative, speeding up of capital acquisition process and setting up of Defence Industrial Corridors among others.

As a demonstration of the thrust on 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat', the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy are adopting indigenously designed and developed platforms for their use. Three platforms were formally handed over by the Prime Minister to respective Service Chiefs in the event.

These platforms depict maturing of the Indian defence industry ecosystem with contributions from Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), DPSUs and Defence industry and start-ups.