Tanks in Parliament? No emergency, just exhibition

NEW DELHI: Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO), which is often slammed by parliamentary committees for cost and time overruns in crucial military projects, is now going to showcase its achievements for the lawmakers inside the sanctum sanctorum of Indian democracy.

DRDO, with its network of 52 labs across the country, is holding a three-day exhibition in and around the Parliament library building from Wednesday, which will be inaugurated by Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Officials say the exhibition will display "numerous state-of-the-art defence technologies, products and systems developed by various DRDO laboratories indigenously."

They will showcase the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, Arjun main battle tank, airborne early warning and control system (AEW&C), multi-barrel rocket Launcher 'Pinaka', NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) recce vehicles, heavyweight shiplaunched torpedo Varunastra, remotely-operated vehicles and the like.

"MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are expected to visit the exhibition to get a first-hand account of huge work undertaken by DRDO and their successful implementation. DRDO will also organise a virtual reality display of Arjun tank, BrahMos missile, AEW&C (Airborne Early Warning and Control System) and light combat aircraft Tejas," said an official.