Balasore: The proposed missile and weapons testing facility at Junput in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district is expected to provide an additional testing corridor for India’s defence establishment and help overcome range limitations faced during interceptor missile trials at Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur, a senior DRDO official said.Situated along the Bay of Bengal coast, Junput is around 74 km by air from Chandipur. When integrated with the existing Chandipur-Abdul Kalam Island testing corridor, the proposed facility is expected to extend the available sea-testing range to around 150 km, enabling air defence trials involving longer interception and engagement distances.Currently, the air distance between Chandipur and Abdul Kalam Island is about 74 km, limiting trials that require a larger engagement envelope for Advanced Air Defence (AAD) and other interceptor missile systems. The proposed Junput facility is expected to provide additional operational space for testing tactical missiles, surface-to-air missile systems, and other air defence technologies.According to the official, a typical air defence trial involves the launch of a target missile or simulated threat from Launch Complex-III at Chandipur, while the interceptor missile is fired from Launch Complex-IV on Abdul Kalam Island. The additional testing corridor created through the Junput facility would offer greater flexibility for conducting trials involving longer-range interception scenarios.The proposed facility will be developed over around 8.73 acres of coastal land. It is located around 133 km from the ITR at Chandipur by road and about 154 km from Kolkata. The facility is intended primarily to share the testing workload of the Odisha-based range, reducing pressure on existing infrastructure and supporting a wider range of missile trials.The project had faced administrative hurdles since 2024, particularly regarding land availability. However, the earlier bottlenecks have now been resolved, and construction and implementation work has commenced, the official said. The Junput facility will function as an extension of the Chandipur-based ITR rather than as an independent missile testing establishment. Like the existing ITR infrastructure, it will serve as a support facility for specific missile and weapons trials, the official said. The project has received environmental clearance from ministry of environment, forest and climate change and has secured support from both the Central and West Bengal govts, paving the way for its implementation.