Permanent Venue for Defexpo not Decided

India’s Land and naval systems show, Defexpo which was moved to Chennai on the country’s eastern coast from its earlier location of Goa on the western coast will not have permanent location as yet.

“No decision has been taken regarding a permanent location for Defexpo,” Indian defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

Addressing journalists here, Sitharaman said that shifting the venue to Mahabalipurum near Chennai was part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of moving events out of the capital, Delhi. The reason for moving the event to Chennai was based on several factors such as access to a defence production corridor and the need to give exposure to Indian firms involved in the manufacture of defence equipment many of which being located in the southern states.

She said the response from Indian companies has been overwhelming such as the organizers ran out of space and has to refuse further registrations.

This year’s Defexpo began today, about 2 months later than its earlier planned date in February. The 2016 edition had been held in Goa and all previous editions had been held in Delhi.

India is considered the world’s biggest market for defence equipment and buys from a variety of sources including European, American and Russian and attracts exhibitors from around the world. Many international exhibitors had complained that frequent shifting of the venue affected their plans of show participation.