Defense Research and Development Organization unit near the city got the status of chemical warfare defense site

Nagpur: The lesser-known unit of DRDO located at Borkhedi has been declared a Chemical Warfare Defense Establishment. This follows an inspection by a team from the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Warfare, an intergovernmental global organization that also certifies that only the activities described are carriend out on the site. The team visited the facility in the year 2021.

The inspection was done to absolutely ensure that the operations carried out at the site conformed to those specified by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). In other words, the facility is not at all involved in activities related to chemical weapons.

This has been disclosed by the Director of Defense Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior, a lab of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The officials were also interacting with journalists on the sidelines of the 108th Indian Science Congress.

The Borkhedi unit is a single small scale (SSSF) facility that is very commonly used to train soldiers to deal with a possible chemical attack. Sources have also said that some antidotes have also been developed after work at the facility here.

OPCW inspection gave it the seal of approval

The DRDO unit at Borkhedi had always given rise to speculations of being a top secret facility for the forces. The facility was in news about a decade ago when waste from Bhopal’s Union Carbide plant was to be shifted here for disposal. It was stopped after the PIL.

Work on the facility began in the year 2006 and was completed by 2012. Finally, the OPCW inspection gave it the seal of approval.

Earlier, talking to reporters, DRDO Director General (Technology Management) Hari Babu Srivastava also said that the agency has developed drones along with guns. These are drones that are going to be equipped with small arms and will be able to reach enemy positions and fire. Although there is a feature of auto-firing, as a matter of ethics, fire will be initiated by remote control after fully ascertaining the presence of the enemy, They said. Srivastava has said that the DRDO is also developing the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mark-II and an LCA for the Navy.

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