Chennai, Sept. 21: A world-class rocket propellant plant will come up at the spaceport in Sriharikota, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

The announcement came with a larger message: the country’s unblemished record in civilian use of space technology “deserved greater recognition, both within India and abroad”.

The new plant will meet the demands of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s next-generation launch vehicle, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-Mark III, Singh added during a brief visit to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, 100 km north of Chennai.

Singh, who unveiled a bust of Satish Dhawan, one of India’s most accomplished scientists and former member of the Space Commission, said it was the latter’s “visionary leadership which helped transform the isolated island (Sriharikota) into India’s proud spaceport”.

Stating that the country’s space programme was moving into “higher gear”, the Prime Minister said Isro will be increasingly called upon “to meet our growing requirement for access to space for purely civilian reasons”. A number of other satellites to test and integrate a new generation of satellites was also on the anvil, he added.

Singh said several key segments of the nation’s development efforts were not dependent on “optimum use of our space assets”. So scientists should be geared to achieve “low-cost access to space through innovative space transportation systems”, which do not compromise on quality.

Congratulating Isro scientists for the string of successful launches from Sriharikota in the recent past, Singh said of the 16 satellites recently launched by the organisation, four were foreign satellites.

India has thus proved it is a “leader in advanced technologies”, he added.

This, Singh said, showed that “international technology denial regimes” had not impeded India’s efforts, while Isro had “maintained an unblemished record as far as non-proliferation is concerned”.

Singh said the excellent infrastructure at Sriharikota met not only the national requirement but also provided adequate facilities “for us to work with international partners”.