March 18, 2002

COSSIPORE GUN SHELL FACTORY CELEBRATES ITS BI-CENTENARY

    The Gun & Shell Factory, Cossipore in Kolkata, the oldest surviving factory of the sub-continent, celebrated its 200th year of glorious existence today. In the history of Indian Industries, there is hardlyany organisation which could boast of an existence of two centuries.

    Shri George Fernandes, Defence Minister, Shri Harin Pathak, Minister of State, Defence Production, Shri Tapan Sikdar, Minister of State of Communication, Shri Subir Dutta, Secretary, Defence Production and Supplies and other dignitaries attended the
celebration.

    Shri Tapan Sikdar released a commemorative stamp on the occasion. The certificate ISO: 9001:2000 was also presented to the factory by the representative of DNV (Netherlands).

    Complementing the country's 4th Arm of Defence, the Ordnance Factories Organisation with 39 Ordnance Factories, the Defence Minister said that it caters to the requirements of Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, Para-Military and Police Forces of Central and State Governments. Shri Fernandes discounted any move of disinvestment of the Ordnance Factories and added that
there has been considerable investment in ordnance factories of late. He urged the workers to be more industrious to keep pace with countries like China.

    Shri Harin Pathak said that in the near furure Rs 100 crores have be set aside for the odernisation of the Cossipore Factory alone.

    During its 200 years journey starting from 1801, when construction began at the present site by East India Co. the factory has been absorbing all technological revolutions starting from bullock driven machines to the latest CNC ones. Along the path of technological evolution, there came the changes in its product-mix from ordinary wooden gun carriages to the most sophisticated anti aircraft guns, from simple iron shots to advance shells and from ordinary fuses to modern time fuses. It has innumerable number of 'firsts' in its illustrious history, including being the first authentic steel manufacturer in the country.