JABALPUR, MP (PTI): The first batch of 18 indigenously upgraded 'Sharang' artillery guns will be inducted into Indian Army by March 31 this year, Programme Coordinator (Sharang) Brigadier Jayant Kar said on Tuesday.

He said the gun, upgraded from 130mm to 155mm with a striking range of 39 kilometres, had successfully gone through integrated firing check on different parameters ranging from 0 degree to 45 degrees on Tuesday at the Long Proof Range of Ordnance Factory Khamaria, 16 kilometers from Jabalpur district headquarters.

"The indigenously-designed Sharang will be inducted in the Army by this fiscal-end. The barrel of the gun has been upgraded from 130 mm to 155 mm and this has increased its hitting range by 12 km kilometres, to 39 kilometres," said Brigadier Kar.

The Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) in Jabalpur had won the global contract to upgrade the Sharang artillery gun, and it was done with the help of state-owned ordnance factories, and teams from the Army and DRDO, the Brigader informed.