Rajnath lays foundation for 5 expansion projects of GRSE, Yantra India
The Ministry of Defence laid the foundation for five brownfield expansion projects — three of Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and two of Yantra India Limited (YIL) — in Kolkata, at a combined investment of approximately ₹3,500 crore.
GRSE's expansion rests on new lease agreements with Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata (SMPK) for two small shipyards on either bank of the Hooghly river and a 32-acre riverside site at Raichak, aimed at boosting warship construction and refit capacity as well as commercial vessel building.
Yantra India Limited's two projects include a ₹277.59-crore, 3,000-tonne Heavy Duty Hydraulic Open Die Forging Press (replacing an older 2,650-tonne press) to manufacture gun barrels and ammunition components, and a ₹473.84-crore Radial Forging Plant for super-alloy forgings, aerial bomb tubes, ordnance parts, railway axles, and nuclear-reactor components.
The projects are framed as strengthening West Bengal's defence-industrial ecosystem, generating employment, and expanding opportunities for ancillary MSMEs.
Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Miniratna status
DPSUs are government-owned defence manufacturing companies under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence. GRSE is a long-standing shipbuilding DPSU; Yantra India Limited is one of seven new DPSUs carved out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) in 2021.
Key Details
- GRSE (Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers), Kolkata: one of India's oldest shipyards, converted into a DPSU in 1960; a Mini Ratna Category-I company; builds frigates, corvettes, and patrol vessels for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.
- Yantra India Limited (YIL): formed on 1 October 2021 as one of the seven successor entities when the OFB was corporatised; produces ordnance vehicles, artillery ammunition components, and heavy forgings; granted Miniratna Category-I status.
- The OFB corporatisation (2021) split the erstwhile board into seven DPSUs: Munitions India Ltd, Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd, Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Ltd, Troop Comforts Ltd, Yantra India Ltd, India Optel Ltd, and Gliders India Ltd.
- Miniratna status grants PSUs greater financial and operational autonomy, including higher capital expenditure approval limits without seeking government clearance.
The expansion projects announced are brownfield (capacity addition at existing sites) investments by two DPSUs from different lineages — GRSE (a legacy shipbuilding DPSU) and YIL (a post-2021 OFB-successor DPSU) — reflecting the government's push to scale up both platform (warship) and critical-component (forging) manufacturing simultaneously.
Atmanirbhar Bharat in defence production and indigenisation
Atmanirbhar Bharat in defence refers to the government's policy push, formalised through Positive Indigenisation Lists and defence production targets, to reduce import dependence on defence platforms and critical sub-systems (such as forgings and ammunition components) by expanding domestic manufacturing capacity.
Key Details
- The Department of Military Affairs periodically notifies "Positive Indigenisation Lists" of items that can only be procured from domestic sources beyond specified timelines.
- Annual defence production has been targeted to cross ₹1.75 lakh crore, with defence exports targeted at ₹35,000 crore in the medium term (targets periodically revised upward in government statements).
- Forging capacity (as in the Yantra India projects) is a critical upstream bottleneck for artillery, aerial bomb, and ordnance manufacturing, since large-calibre gun barrels and bomb casings require heavy open-die and radial forging presses that were historically imported.
- Defence procurement for major indigenous platforms follows the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) → Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approval → Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) clearance → contract signing pipeline.
The new forging press and radial forging plant at Yantra India directly address the upstream, less-visible indigenisation gap in heavy forgings for gun barrels, aerial bombs, and even nuclear-reactor components, complementing GRSE's downstream warship-assembly indigenisation, together illustrating that self-reliance in defence spans both finished-platform and critical-component manufacturing.
- Total investment across the five projects: approximately ₹3,500 crore.
- Yantra India's Heavy Duty Hydraulic Open Die Forging Press: ₹277.59 crore, 3,000-tonne capacity (replacing an older 2,650-tonne press).
- Yantra India's Radial Forging Plant: ₹473.84 crore.
- GRSE: converted to a DPSU in 1960; Mini Ratna Category-I status.
- Yantra India Limited: formed 1 October 2021 from the corporatised Ordnance Factory Board, one of seven OFB-successor DPSUs.
- GRSE's new shipyard sites: two facilities on either bank of the Hooghly plus a 32-acre site at Raichak, leased from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata.