Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley inaugurated Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), which cost around 1300 Crore and it is developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) near Challakere in Chitradurga district on Sunday.
Arun Jaitley said, “With continuous breach from the neighbor (Pakistan) from last 7 decades, it is now better to invest more funds in the project like these than to spent buying defence technology from foreign countries. Stressing on the need for creating homegrown facilities for defence purposes, he said that with facilities like the ATR, India can aspire to become a world leader in defence technology”.
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The ATR will have a technical infrastructure which expands in the area of around 4090 acres with 200 acres of residential area along with agencies. The ATR was partially operational from December last year and also faced several problems from protesting farmers and NGT (National Green Tribunal).