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RInfra to invest Rs 100 Bn in Maharashtra defence project

2024-10-25

The Anil Ambani family-owned Reliance Infrastructure has announced plans to invest Rs 100 billion over the next decade to create India’s largest integrated manufacturing facility for explosives, ammunition, and small arms in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. The company stated that it had been allocated 1,000 acres in the Watad industrial area for developing the Dhirubhai Ambani Defence City (DADC).

According to Reliance Infrastructure, this new export-oriented project will represent the largest Greenfield defence initiative in India by a private sector entity. The company further highlighted that, through its subsidiaries, it has already exported defence equipment worth over Rs 10 billion. Reliance Infrastructure’s fully owned subsidiaries, Jai Armaments and Reliance Defence, are licensed by the Indian government to produce arms and ammunition, and the proposed project anticipates forming potential joint ventures with up to six leading global defence companies, though it did not disclose specific names.

The ammunition range will include small, medium, and large-calibre munitions, alongside terminally guided munitions (TGM), while the small arms portfolio will target export markets, serving both civilian and military clients.

Reliance Infrastructure also noted that it has already established successful joint ventures at MIHAN in Nagpur, Maharashtra, with two major global defence firms—Dassault Aviation and Thales of France—both of which export their entire production to international markets.