By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian government is set to revive an ordnance factory in Bihar for manufacturing propellants for heavy calibre artillery shells two years after the project was stalled due to corruption charges against its South African collaborator, parliament was informed Monday.
“The project for production of BMCS (bi-modular charge system) at Nalanda has already been approved by the government. The revision in project cost is now pending approval,” Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
The new collaborator has, however, not been named.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had last year floated new global tenders for collaborating in the Nalanda project to manufacture propellants for 155 mm artillery shells.
This followed the blacklisting of South African arms major Denel on corruption charges in another deal to manufacture anti-material rifles.
The previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had sanctioned the factory at Nalanda, the Lok Sabha constituency of then defence minister George Fernandes. A staggering Rs.3.06 billion has so far been spent on the project, where work has been stalled for the past two years.
The government is also considering the establishment of another factory for producing new generation carbines, the minister said, without giving details.