Very Short-Range Air Defence System. (File photo)
New Delhi: Adani Defence & Aerospace on Sunday laid the foundation stone for an integrated missile-manufacturing complex in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, an investment pegged at ₹2,500 crore that the company has billed as south Asia’s largest private-sector missile ecosystem.
The ceremony, held near Kolaras in Shivpuri, was attended by the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mohan Yadav, and the union minister for civil aviation and steel, Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose Guna parliamentary constituency includes the project site.
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Yadav and Scindia jointly laid the foundation stone for the plant, which officials said is being set up at a cost of about ₹2,500 crore. Representing the Adani Group at the event were Karan Adani and Jeet Adani, director of Adani Enterprises.
Scindia described it as a new chapter and a new dawn in the history of nation-building, national service, and national security.
He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s moment has arrived. “The country is advancing at a historic pace towards self-reliance in the defence sector and under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Madhya Pradesh is emerging as a major hub for industrial investment, and this project marks a historic milestone in that journey.”
Addressing the gathering, Jeet Adani described the project as a milestone for private participation in India's defence manufacturing base. He said the facility would bring the entire value chain, from raw materials to mission-ready missile systems, under a single roof, calling it a historic first outside the public sector.
What the complex will house?
The unit is expected to comprise three linked facilities – a missile complex, a composite propellant complex and a TNT complex, indicating that the site will handle not just assembly but also the production of propellants and explosive materials used in missile systems, a combination rarely undertaken by a private manufacturer in the country.
Officials said the project would generate direct and indirect employment, including for the local population, while opening opportunities for small and medium enterprises in the region to plug into the defence production supply chain.
The choice of location appears deliberate. The plant is being positioned near the junction of the Kota highway and the Mumbai-Gwalior highway, roughly 70 kilometres from Guna, an area that has traditionally depended on agriculture and tomato cultivation rather than industry.
Scindia has previously pointed to the project as a long-awaited push for industrial development in the region, arguing that the equipment produced there would strengthen the country’s border security.
Separately, earlier estimates around the project had suggested it could generate close to 2,000 direct jobs once operational, though the timeline for full commissioning has not been formally confirmed by the company.
Building on an existing defence footprint
Sunday’s ground-breaking extends a pattern of rapid expansion for Adani Defence & Aerospace, which has assembled its defence portfolio largely through acquisitions over the past six years.
The company entered small arms manufacturing in 2020 with the purchase of a majority stake in PLR Systems, and moved into unmanned systems and precision munitions in 2022 through a stake in Bengaluru-based General Aeronautics, a firm that has worked with the Defence Research and Development Organisation on guided bombs and short-range air defence systems.
It broadened further in December 2024 with the acquisition of a majority stake in Air Works India, the country's largest private maintenance, repair and overhaul company.
Its most significant facility to date remains the 500-acre ammunition and missile complex in Kanpur, part of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor, inaugurated in February 2024 by the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, and the then chief of the army staff, General Manoj Pande.
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The Kanpur plant was designed to produce roughly 150 million rounds of small-calibre ammunition annually, about a quarter of the country’s requirement, alongside medium- and large-calibre rounds and missile systems.
The Shivpuri project, once operational, would sit alongside Kanpur as the company’s second major missile-related manufacturing base, reinforcing Adani’s position as the most prominent private player in a segment historically dominated by defence public sector undertakings such as Bharat Dynamics Limited.
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