BrahMos phase II: Deadline for land set

The second phase development of BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (BATL) now hinges on a State Government promise to find the necessary land by March 31.

``Last week, the government held a meeting and assured that necessary land will be found for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) by March 31. We hope everything will go smoothly,’’ BATL CEO and managing director and DRDO chief controller (R&D) Dr A. Sivathanu Pillai said on the sidelines of a function here on Saturday.

For launching the second phase of the cruise missile programme, BATL had identified 7.15 acres of land adjacent to its Chakkai plant.

This land belongs to the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF has, in principle, agreed to hand over the land, but on the condition that they be allotted land elsewhere. The IAF needs land to build accommodation for its personnel. The State Government’s plan is to acquire land near Chakkai for the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for the development of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and provide substitute land for the IAF there, so the latter can hand over its plot to BATL.

``Unlike in other states, land is a big problem here. We understand that. But we are sure things will go smoothly,’’ said Sivathanu Pillai, who envisages a bigger role for Thiruvananthapuram and BATL once the Aerospace industry boom gets going in earnest.

The BrahMos (an amalgam of Brahmaputra and Moskva) missile programme is a joint venture between India and Russia. When Brah- Mos Aerospace took over stateowned KELTE C in 2007, the promise was that the first missile will be rolled out from Thiruvananthapuram in three years’ time.

Dhanush missile successfully test fired

India on Sunday successfully test fired its nuclear-capable ballistic missile 'Dhanush', with a range of 350 km, from a naval ship off the Orissa coast.

The single-stage ship-based missile was flight-tested at around 11.30 am and the trial was successful, defence sources
said.


'Dhanush' has a payload capacity of 500 kg and is capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads. It can hit both sea and shore-based targets.

The missile, which has liquid propellant, is the naval version of India's indigenously developed surface-to-surface
'Prithvi' missile system, the sources said.

"Dhanush, being developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was put to trial jointly by a
team of scientists and officers from the Navy," they said.

"Today's test launch has been tracked from its take-off to impact point through an integrated network of sophisticated
radars and electro-optic instruments for post-mission data analyses," the sources said.

The missile had failed in its first test at the development stage on April 11, 2000 due to certain technical problems relating to the take-off stage but subsequent trials were successful.

The last trial of 'Dhanush' was successfully conducted from a naval ship off Orissa coast on March 30, 2007, the sources said.