The union defense ministry has taken the suggestion of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seriously on rechristening Hyderabad missile complex name after APJ Kalam.
The union government has decided to rename the prestigious missile complex in Hyderabad ‘Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex’ in honor of the late President, defense ministry sources said.
On September 24, the Telangana Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution requesting the Centre to name the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad after former President, APJ Abdul Kalam. While chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao proposed the resolution, leaders of various political parties supported it.
The chief minister while paying tributes to the ‘Missile Man’, said that the resolution would be sent to the Centre. Dr Kalam,who joined the missile complext in 1982, had spent over a decade in the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and also worked as director of Research Centre Imarat (RCI) for some time.
Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar will attend the renaming ceremony at the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) on October 15, the 84th birth anniversary of the former President, also known as the ‘Missile Man’.
The missile complex comprises the Advanced System Laboratory (ASL), Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and RCI, which is considered to be the brainchild of Kalam. Parrikar will also be inaugurating two advance R&D facilities at RCI.
Popular as the ‘People’s President’, Kalam died of a massive cardiac arrest on July 27 this year in Meghalaya state capital Shillong.