Hazira: Why the tank plant PM Modi will visit on Friday matters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Larsen & Tubro's Hazira plant during his visit to Surat on Friday. This will be PM Modi's first visit to this facility since 2019. This plant is increasingly growing in importance in the space of national defence. The L&T Hazira facility is an advanced industrial complex that is a hub for defence and heavy engineering projects. The facility has also been visited by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in January 2020. Both the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister were showcased the K-9 Thunder during their respective visits. The L&T plant at Hazira is the largest private manufacturer of tracked armoured vehicles in the country. The first major defence equipment to be rolled out of this facility was the army's K-9 Vajra tracked medium artillery gun. A hundred of these artillery guns have been delivered to the army. These guns have been deployed in the high altitude areas of Eastern Ladakh during the ongoing deployment on the Line of Actual Control. The government has cleared an order of an additional 100 of these artillery guns for the army.The facility also became a focus of national attention when the first Zorawar light tank was rolled out of the AM Naik Heavy Engineering Complex at the facility. The tank was designed, developed and rolled out at a record speed of 19-months. The Zorawar light tank was designed to be deployed to fight in the high altitude terrain of the high Himalayas. This vehicle is currently undergoing trials. The plant is also developing L&T's entry to the Indian Army's Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) program. The FICV is expected to replace the Indian Army's fleet of the Soviet origin BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs). During PM MOdi's 2019 visit to the facility, he was shown the prototypes of L&T's take on the FICV program. Other Indian firms such as Tata, Mahindra Defence, Bharat Forge and Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited are also contenders for the FICV program.With larger orders of the Zorawar light tank and if L&T's FICV programme is selected by the army, then Hazira could become one of the most important centres of defence production in India.