PM Modi hands over 'Made-In-India' Arjun battle tank to army in Chennai

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today handed over the indigenously developed Arjun Main Battle Tank (Mark 1A) tanks to Army Chief General MM Naravane in Chennai

PM Modi arrived in Chennai to launch various government programmes in Tamil Nadu, where assembly election will be held this year.

PM Modi accepted a salute by the state-of-the-art tank, indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment in Chennai, reported news agency PTI.

In a high-level meeting, the Defence Ministry had recently cleared the induction of 118 Arjun Mark 1A tanks into the Indian Army, costing around ₹ 8,400 crore, news agency ANI had reported.

The Prime Minister also launched a 9-km-long stretch of the Chennai Metro Rail, along with two other railway projects and laid the foundation stone of Discovery Campus of IIT, Madras that is expected to cost ₹ 1,000 crore. Later, he will lay the foundation stone for the renovation and modernisation of the grand Anaicut Canal.

Tamil Nadu will go to polls later this year and on January 30, BJP chief JP Nadda had announced that the party will fight the state election in alliance with the ruling AIADMK. In the 2019 general election the BJP-AIADMK alliance had managed to win just one seat.