Amritsar – India imports spare parts worth around Rs. 100,000 crores every year for the defence sector and the MSME sector in Punjab can help fulfill part of this demand by indigenizing assemblies, sub-assemblies and components. This was disclosed by Air Cmdr (Retd) JS Kalra during a seminar ‘Catalysing Punjab Industry for Defence’ organized as part of the 4-Day Mega Expo CII Destination Punjab currently underway at Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar. The Seminar was also addressed by Brig. Raja Puri, DDG Indigenisation, Army Hqs, New Delhi, Gp. Capt. SV Rao, Squadron Commander Indigenisation, 3BRD, AF Chandigarh, Wng. Cmdr. AK Verma 1BRD, AF ( Kanpur) and Sqn. Ldr. E Shanmuga Sunder, 4 BRD AF ( Kanpur)
Mr. Kalra pointed out that the Indian Army, Indian Air force and Navy depend on Russia and other countries for spare parts of helicopters, airplanes, weapons and other defence machinery. This has its inherent problems like long delivery time, price issues etc. Already, a number of industries in India had indigenised some products and there was a plethora of opportunities for Punjab-based entrepreneurs who have the technical capabilities to manufacture these products and supply them to the Army. To promote the Indian industry for this purpose, the army and Indian Government was ready to provide various types of technical and financial assistance to the MSME’s, he added.
Brig. Raja Puri, DDG Indigenisation, Army Hqs, New Delhi said, there are over 450,000 different types of spare parts required for the defence sector equipment like tanks, heavy air weapon systems, electronic and engineering equipments. As the life of certain equipment, which had been purchased a couple of decades ago, had been extended the defence forces were running short of spare parts because the overseas suppliers had stopped manufacturing them. . Currently less than one percent of the total inventory had been indigenized, so one could well imagine the potential. Already some companies like Tata, L & T etc were providing different products to the army, he added.
Gp. Capt. SV Rao , Squadron Commander Indigenisation, 3BRD, AF Chandigarh said that the Air Force needs aviation spare parts of international standards in huge numbers. There were more than 2000 products required for the USSR manufactured Helicopters and fighter Aircraft. There are common spare parts like power supply modules, fasteners, ball bearings, houses, bushes, modules , chemicals, filter elements etc which the AirForce requires in huge numbers and this is an excellent opportunity fot the MSME sector of Punjab.
Wng. Cmdr. AK Verma 1BRD, AF (Kanpur) said, the Government also helps in providing all types of lab facilities for quality control of the products and also helps to select good quality raw materials for manufacturing the spare parts.
Sqn. Ldr. E Shanmuga Sunder, 4 BRD AF ( Kanpur) also explained the different products need for the fighting aircrafts of the latest technology. He detailed the different types of dies, hose for machinery, electronic and electro mechanical instrument’s spare parts gas kits, metallic pipe lines.
