Wings of fire - Sir APJ ABDUL KALAM Wings of fire | Page 104

agencies would participate in the creation of Research
Centre Imarat (RCI), someone had to protect hierarchical
sensitivities. I selected Krishna Mohan, who was in his
midthirties, to complement Suryakantha Rao, who was in
his late fifties at that time. Krishna Mohan would encourage
involvement rather than relying on obedience and
monitoring people at their workplaces.
According to the established procedure, we
approached the Military Engineering Services (MES) for
the RCI construction work. They said it would take five
years to complete the task. The matter was discussed in
depth at the highest level in the Ministry of Defence and a
landmark decision to entrust the responsibility of building
defence structures to an outside construction company was
taken. We liaised with the Survey of India and the National
Remote Sensing Agency for the inspection of the contour
maps and for obtaining aerial photographs of the Imarat
Kancha to prepare a layout for the approach roads and the
location of the facilities. The Central Ground Water Board
identified twenty locations amid the rocks to tap water.
Infrastructure to provide 40 MVA power and 5 million litres
of water per day was planned.
It was also at this time that Col SK Salwan, a
mechanical engineer with boundless energy, joined us. In
the final phase of construction, Salwan discovered an
ancient place of worship among the boulders. It seemed to
me that this place was blessed.
Now that we had started working on the design of the
missile systems and development had already commenced
for their integration and checkout, the next logical step was
to look for a suitable site for the missile flight trials. With
SHAR also in Andhra Pradesh, the search for a suitable
site spread towards the eastern coastline and finally ended
at Balasore in Orissa. A site along the north-eastern coast
was identified for a National Test Range. Unfortunately the
entire project ran into rough weather because of the
political issues raised around the evacuation of people
living in that area. We decided therefore to create an
interim infrastructure adjacent to the Proof Experimental
Establishment (PXE) at Chandipur in Balasore district of
Orissa. A funding of Rs 30 crores had been given to
construct the range, called the Interim Test Range (ITR). Dr
HS Rama Rao and his team did an excellent job of working
out innovative and cost-effective specifications for electro-
optical tracking instruments, a tracking telescope system
and an instrumentation tracking radar. Lt Gen RS Deswal
and Maj Gen KN Singh took charge of creating the launch
pad and range infrastructure. There was a beautiful bird
sanctuary in Chandipur. I asked the engineers to design the
test range without disturbing it.
Creating the RCI was perhaps the most satisfying
experience of my life. Developing this centre of excellence
of missile technology was akin to the joy of a potter shaping
artifacts of lasting beauty from the mundane clay.
Defence Minister R Venkataraman visited DRDL in
September 1983 to appraise himself of the activities of
IGMDP. He advised us to list all the resources we needed
to achieve our goals, overlooking nothing, and then include
in the list our own positive imagination and faith. “What you
imagine, is what will transpire. What you believe is what you
will achieve,” he said. Both Dr Arunachalam and I saw in
the horizon endless possibilities stretching out before
IGMDP; and our enthusiasm proved infectious. We were
excited and encouraged to see the best professionals in
the country gravitating towards IGMDP. Who would not