THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The Kinfra Hi-tech Industrial Park, Kalamassery, Kochi will have a high profile presence in the form of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). The leading PSU defence major will set up its new Product Support Centre at the park.

Union Defence Minister A K Antony will lay the foundation stone of the Product Support Centre on November 26, in the presence of Kerala's Minister for Industries and Commerce Elamaram Kareem.

BEL has felt the need to open a Product Support Centre at Kochi in order to address the product support activities for the Indian Navy, National Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) of DRDO, Kochi Shipyard and BEL's outsourcing partner Keltron, said a Kinfra official.

BEL had interacted with the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra), a statutory body of the Kerala Government. Following this, Kerala provided 6.2 acres of land to BEL in the hi-tech park being developed by Kinfra at Kalamassery, Kochi, on lease for 90 years.

Positioning the Support Centre near Kochi is expected to enable BEL to provide good product support to the Indian Navy for the platforms coming under the Southern Naval Command. A long-term plan will be worked out to ensure waterfront support activities.

BEL and NPOL have been collaborating successfully in the field of underwater systems for the past three decades. Ship and Submarine Sonars have been developed jointly and have entered into service in most of the Indian platforms.

Approaches like concurrent engineering have been adopted in the past to reduce the cycle time of induction by the Indian Navy. Establishing a Support Centre at Kochi by BEL will further facilitate achieving the ambitious targets for the indigenous sonar programmes.

BEL proposes to outsource certain manufacturing activities to Keltron and the Support Centre will help co-ordinate this increased interaction between BEL and Keltron. The support centre will function as Product Support Centre with electronic maintenance labs, repair centres and necessary instruments.

Production facilities of various Keltron units will be utilized for providing manufacturing support for R&D projects, the official said.

The official added that a host of projects are at various stages of execution at the Kinfra Hitech Park on 240 acres of land at Kalamasserry, Kochi. These include a biotech park, an international exhibition and trade centre, a gem and jewellery park and an electronics hardware industries.

The developers of the projects were selected through an open competitive-bidding process following approved eligibility criteria, he added.