West Bengal has backed DRDO's proposed weapons-testing facility at Junput in Purba Medinipur, according to Akashvani's September 13 report. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari approved the proposal, the broadcaster said, describing the coastal site as additional capacity intended to share the workload of the testing facilities in neighbouring Odisha.
The project already had a documented construction history. In an August 5, 2024 Rajya Sabha answer, Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth said land acquisition was complete after the necessary clearances. Roads and hard standing had also been built. The same answer said work had temporarily stopped because of local unrest.
That parliamentary reply also set out the ministry's arrangements for nearby communities. Before testing, residents within a one-kilometre radius were to be evacuated, with safe shelter and compensation provided. The question specifically concerned effects on fishermen and farmers as well as the project's progress. The answer described safety measures but supplied no date for operational commencement.
Later reporting on September 14, published by Rediff at 1:03 pm, added an account from a defence official who said Junput would operate as an extension of Chandipur. The official did not identify the weapons intended for the site. Adhikari was quoted saying his government had responded to central communications and was facilitating the facility.
Hemant Kumar Rout's report placed Junput alongside a separate expansion at Nagayalanka in Andhra Pradesh. That project's Navdurga range was described as incorporating a launch centre, radar, telemetry and electro-optical instrumentation. The report linked Nagayalanka particularly to Phase-II ballistic-missile defence work, while describing Junput's principal purpose as extra operational capacity for Chandipur.
The two projects therefore serve different roles in the reported expansion: Junput extends an existing testing network, while Nagayalanka adds facilities for more complex trials. For Junput, renewed state cooperation follows land acquisition and initial construction rather than marking their first approval. Neither the 2024 answer nor the September reports establishes an operational opening date.
