From the days of ‘jungle raj’ to becoming the hub of weapons manufacturing for the Army: Bihar set for a remarkable turnaround with the latest proposal

‘Thok denge katta kapaar me, aaye na hamra Bihar me’ [I will shoot you in the head with a gun, if you come to Bihar]. This is a popular line in the title track of a web series, Khaki: The Bihar Chapter. While this web series shows the story of the era of crime in Bihar and how an IPS officer fights it, we bring up this line as even today, illegal ‘Katta’ (country made gun) and Bihar remain synonymous. However, this image of Bihar is going to change as an Ordnance Factory Corridor is going to be built in the state.

In these ordnance factories, spread across five districts, weapons will be manufactured for the Indian army and the police. In addition to supplying weaponry to the Indian armed forces, guns manufactured here will also be exported abroad. This would mark a paradigm shift as Bihar will produce guns, not for gang wars and street crimes, but to obliterate the enemies of India. This ordnance corridor will be built in collaboration by the PM Modi-led Central government and the CM Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.

Bihar ordnance factory corridor plan

Bihar’s Industry Minister Nitish Mishra has sent a proposal to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to build an Ordnance Factory Corridor in 5 districts of Bihar. As part of this plan, ammunition and weapon manufacturing factories will be set up in every district.

Minister Mishra said that if this ordnance corridor is built in Bihar, then weapons can be supplied across the country on time. He also mentioned that about 1 lakh people will get direct employment in the state with this.

Districts where the ordnance corridor will be built

This Ordnance Factory Corridor will be built across 5 districts in Bihar. The districts covered will be Munger, Kaimur, Banka, Jamui and Arwal. This corridor will have factories for manufacturing various types of guns and ammunition for Indian security forces. Reportedly, one factory will cost around ₹1500 crore.

The government aims to give a new identity to districts like Munger, who had become synonymous with illegal weapons for the past several years.

Earlier, cases of illegal arms manufacturing and their sale have been widely reported from Munger. In the last 3-4 years alone, dozens of illegal gun factories have been found in Munger.

Once, there were many legal factories in Munger which employed thousands of workers. However, due to ‘Jungle Raj’ era of the 1990s, these factories slowly closed down. Due to this, the skilled workers became unemployed, and some of them started making illegal weapons.

Which weapons will be made

The plan is to manufacture a wide range of weaponry, from small pistols to cannons, in the factories to be set up in these districts. Once the factories are set up, there is a plan to manufacture rifles, machine guns, FN-Minimi, Negev NG-5 and Browning machine guns. In addition, grenades and grenade launchers will also be manufactured in these factories.

Besides weapons, helmets, and protective clothing used by the army will also be manufactured here. These factories will get their raw material from neighbouring Jharkhand. With the setting up of ordnance factories, development in the nearby areas is also expected to be expedited.

How the ordnance factory corridor will benefit Bihar

Bihar is grappling with a migration crisis for the last 3-4 decades, since the Jungle Raj era. A new initiative can prove to be effective on a large scale for Bihar in terms of opening up employment opportunities. It is estimated that 1 lakh people will get employment in the ordnance factory corridor. Along with that, several ancillary industries are expected to come up which will boost local economy further. Along with this, the rest of the infrastructure in Bihar will also improve due to the establishment of big industries.

These factories will be set up in Bihar with government investment; however, later on, private investment will also be incorporated to bring in more skilled workers. Currently, private companies shy away from investing in Bihar; however, this proposed ordnance corridor can bring Bihar back on the path of economic progress.

Interestingly, this is not the first big step towards industrialisation in Bihar. Earlier in the 1970s, such an attempt was made during the tenure of Lalit Narayan Mishra. However, after that came the era of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Jungle Raj, due to which the industries that were running in Bihar also closed down.

Defence corridor has been built in UP-Tamil Nadu

This idea of an Ordnance Corridor in Bihar has already been implemented successfully in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. A defence corridor has been built in 6 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Reports say that more than ₹47 thousand crores have been invested here so far, and around 7 companies have now started manufacturing there.

Many big testing facilities are being built in the Defence Corridor in Tamil Nadu. Such development in Bihar will only reinforce Modi government’s strict stand on national security. Since the Modi government came to power, there has been a sharp increase in domestic manufacturing in the defence sector and export of defence products.

In 2014, defence products worth only ₹46 thousand crore were manufactured in the country, but now it has increased to ₹1.27 lakh crore. Along with this, India’s export of defence products has increased 34 times to ₹23,622 crore when compared to 2014. Bihar’s Ordnance Corridor has the potential to make a significant contribution to India’s defence exports while also bolstering the state’s economy and providing employment.

The original report can be read here.

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