New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is building a test centre at West Bengal’s Junput for India’s weapon systems, on the lines of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur, Odisha.
Work on the Junput project, which will have a small test centre, has already started, DRDO officials said on Thursday.
Like Chandipur, Junput village is also situated by the Bay of Bengal, at a distance of 70 km apart.
Setting up an additional operation area was necessitated because the ITR at Chandipur, near Balasore, has become saturated with work related to testing.
“As timely trials of weapon systems are of paramount importance, a plan is being implemented for an additional operation area at Junput near Digha, about 70 kilometres from Chandipur,” a DRDO official said.
Junput is located 177 km from state capital Kolkata and 40 km from Bengal’s popular sea resort town Digha.
The Junput test centre is being built over 8.73 acres of land has received recommendations from the Central and West Bengal governments, and approved by Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
“According to the standard, while undergoing any flight test, DRDO always keeps the safety and tranquillity of humans and nature at utmost priority. All the people living in the vicinity of the test site should freely continue with their day-to-day activities. Further, DRDO ensures that its tests or trials do not impact the life of people, especially fishermen and farmers, dwelling in its surroundings,” the official said.
