Andhra Pradesh signs MoU for building India’s first Drone City in Kurnool

The Andhra Pradesh government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with aerpace Industries as one of companies for developing India’s first Drone City in the Kurnool region. The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) executed the agreement recently, marking a major step towards advancing drone technologies, aerospace engineering, and unmanned systems in the country.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal recently laid the foundation for India's first Drone City and Space City at the CII Partnership Summit. The Drone City project, spread across 300 acres in Kurnool's Orvakal, is a flagship initiative of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. He has been promoting technology-driven development in line with the Viksit Bharat vision. The state aims to create a structured ecosystem that will support drone research, manufacturing, testing, and advanced mobility solutions.

Speaking on the initiative, the Chief Minister highlighted the role of drone technologies in national growth and stressed the state’s focus on building an innovation-friendly environment.


The MoU marks the start of a phased development plan. . Further updates will be released as the work progresses.

Key focus areas of the collaboration
Under the partnership, aerpace will work with APEDB on:

• Setting up an advanced drone manufacturing and testing facility
• Supporting an ecosystem for defence UAVs, logistics drones, and AI-driven platforms
• Contributing to research, training, component development, and system-level innovation
• Strengthening growth across aerpace’s defence and mobility verticals, including aerShield and aerWing

Speaking on the occasion, Piyush Goyal lauded the efforts of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in contributing to the growth of IT both in United Andhra and India. He also appreciated the initiative to construct a Space City near Sriharikota, which is the hub of Indian rocket launching.

Speaking about the MoU, Ravi Soni, Executive Director of aerpace Industries, said: “India’s First Drone City represents a landmark opportunity for the nation to build sovereign capability in aerospace, defence, and unmanned systems. We are honoured to be part of this initiative and remain committed to contributing meaningfully to India’s innovation landscape."