Science City gets park showcasing life-size replicas of country’s six flagship missiles

kolkata: Science City, Kolkata has recently unveiled a new attraction in the form of a Missile Park that has been designed and developed to showcase the missile development programme of India.

The life-size replicas of six flagship missiles of India, namely BrahMos, Prithvi, Mission Shakti, Akash, Astra, and Nag has been put on display for the visitors.

An added attraction of the park is a statue of India’s Missile Man, former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, who spearheaded the country’s missile development programme during its nascent years. An audio commentary automatically starts to give an overview of the Indian Missile Programme the moment the visitor stands in front of his statue.

What the people usually see on their TV sets on the occasion of the Republic Day parade, can now be seen live during their visit to Science City. The Missile Park with life size replicas of missiles is for enthusing the visitors about the great strides India has made in the field of missile technology. “ We expect that the missile park will be able to encourage young minds to take up science and technology as their career. Entry to the Missile Park is free with the entry ticket to the Science City,”Anurag Kumar, director, Science City, Kolkata, said.

The Missile Park has been developed jointly by Centre for Millimeter-wave Semiconductor Devices and Systems (CMSDS), Kolkata, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO), and Science City, Kolkata, a unit of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM).

India’s Missile development programme started in the 1960s through DRDO. Later, the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

(IGMDP) commenced under the leadership of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at DRDL, Hyderabad in 1983 which gave a boost to the missiles programme.

Surface-to-surface strategic missiles Prithvi and Agni, surface-to-air missile Akash, and anti-tank guided missile Nag were developed under this programme.

The development of BrahMos, the Supersonic Cruise Missile, and Mission Shakti, the anti-satellite weapon, has made India a world leader in missile technology.