M A I N   N E W S

India-made trucks may push Tatra out
Will ramp up indigenous production and reduce Army’s dependence on foreign vendors
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

Made in India The Army has completed trials for two types of trucks to replace Tatra - the six-wheeled-drive high-mobility vehicle and the eight-wheeled-drive high-mobility vehicles. The plan is to buy 1,239 units of the first variety and another 255 of the second variety The trials have been conducted for all specified parameters under winter and summer conditions and with truck carrying full load The shift to India-made trucks also falls in line with AK Antony’s policy of giving a boost to indigenous production

New Delhi, June 16
Considered as the ‘backbone’ of the Indian Army’s rapid response to any attack along the western front for long, the Czech-built Tatra trucks may not be purchased from now on. The reason: India-built trucks have now improved a lot and could be selected for forthcoming expansion drive or replacements for Tatra trucks, resulting in saving foreign exchange and unhinging India’s reliance on foreign suppliers.

Purchase of Tatra trucks had become controversial and the contract of 1,676 high-mobility Tatra trucks was stopped after former Army Chief Gen VK Singh alleged in February 2012 that there was an attempt to bribe him for clearing the deal. The CBI then booked VRS Natarajan, chief of the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), in April last year. The BEML was the Indian partner of Tatra. A retired Army officer and a private individual have also been booked by the CBI.

Now ending Tatra’s monopoly in India, the Army has completed trials for two types of trucks to replace Tatra - the six-wheeled-drive high-mobility vehicle and the eight-wheeled-drive high-mobility vehicles. The plan is to buy 1,239 units of the first variety and another 255 of the second variety.

The trials have been conducted for all specified parameters under winter and summer conditions and with truck carrying full load, some times in excess of 20 tonnes. The shift to India-made trucks also falls in line with Defence Minister AK Antony’s policy of ramping up indigenous production while reducing dependence on foreign vendors.

“This was an open tender which was to seek vehicles that can run on mud-paths, deserts, through slushy agricultural field, through small rivers and even river banks while carrying heavy equipment. The trials are complete,” said a senior officer. The Army expects the first set of vehicles to be inducted by the middle of 2014.

The importance of the high-mobility Tatra vehicles can be gauged from the fact that strike-power of the Indian Army is moved on such trucks. In real war-time scenario, the mobility will have to be high. The BrahMos missile, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher and its sibling, the Smerch, are also carried on such trucks.

Also field radars and mobile bridges, which will help tanks to cross small water bodies like canals, are carried on such trucks. In today’s networked scenario carrying heavy equipment of rail would make it easier for enemy UAVs and satellites to identify. Trucks can be scattered and be under some camouflage increasing their chances of ensuring a strike. As of now, all the three strike formations at Ambala, Mathura and Bhopal rely on such trucks for rapid response.