JOIN USFor the second time in a row, the defence ministry's biennial exposition on land and naval systems would be held outside the national capital with the NDA government zeroing in on the Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu.
The DefExpo-2018 will be held between April 11 and 14.
Taking the military exhibition to South India comes at a time when the defence ministry has decided to set up a defence production corridor between Chennai and Bengaluru in order to link the small- and medium-scale industries at Mysore, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli with the big players in the defence manufacturing segment.
This is one of the two defence production corridors announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his latest Budget, the other one being in Uttar Pradesh.
The Department of Defence Production has begun the process of preparing the detailed project report by an external agency and engagements with local industry and state government officials are planned next week at Coimbatore, Salem and Chennai.
DefExpo 2018 would showcase India as a hub of defence production, a defence ministry statement said.
As many as 42 countries, including the USA, UK, Russia, France, Israel, South Korea, and Sweden have confirmed their participation and the numbers are expected to rise.
Nearly 10 companies are booking space in the DefExpo every day, which would be held in nearly two lakh square metres of space, according to the ministry statement.
The previous edition of the show was held in Goa in 2016. It was also the first time when the exhibition was shifted from its traditional venue at Pragati Maidan in Delhi.
Last August Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was India's defence minister for more than two years (till March 2017), had said that Betul in south Goa would be the permanent venue for the military show.
But with Nirmala at the helm of affairs at the defence ministry since September, once again the show was moved to a new venue.