New Delhi: India will soon procure over 600
armoured recovery and repair vehicles for T-72 battle tanks,
and a proposal in this regard was cleared by the Cabinet
Committee on Security recently.
"The CCS cleared it (on Thursday)," Defence Minister A K
Antony told reporters here today.
He was asked if the government had cleared a proposal for
the armoured recovery vehicles, which will be built by the
Defence Sector PSU Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML).
The order, expected to be of over Rs 1,000 crore, is a
repeat order and the vehicles will be built under a transfer
of technology from the Polish defence firm.
These vehicles are used to repair damaged or broken down
tanks and infantry combat vehicles during both peacetime and
combat.
Asked if the government is planning to build the Bofors
howitzers at the Ordnance Factory in Jabalpur, the Defence
Minister said, "The Army is frantically trying to find a new
gun, but in between, there have been a lot of hurdles."
"We are now trying to find a solution too this
long-pending demand of Army. We have not fully succeeded but
we think there will be a breakthrough in the coming weeks or
next few months," he said.
On the alleged defence land scam in Jammu and Kashmir,
Antony said after receiving information information about it,
the Ministry had twice sent teams there and the reports
convinced that there were lapses in the management of defence
land.
"After that we referred the case for inquiry to the CBI,"
he said.
A CBI probe was recommended into the incident after it
was found that some of the Defence Estates Organisation (DEO)
officials had allegedly issued No-objection Certificates
wrongly for the sale of defence land there.
PTI
