PANAJI
Tata Motors has signed a follow-up contract with the Indian Army for supplying an additional 619 units of its high-mobility (HMV) 6X6 multi-axle truck. Earlier, the company had bagged an order to supply 1,239 units of its HMVs to the Indian Army.
Both the contracts, put together, is the single largest order ever awarded to an Indian private original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in land systems by the Indian army, under the Indian Ministry of Defence DPP (Defence Procurement Procedure).
Tata Motors has developed the HMVs indigenously on a capable platform for diverse tasks. The HMVs are designed to cope with extreme on or off-road loads and have gone through trials including deep water-fording, on cross country terrains and plains.
Besides, Tata Motors’s HMVs can be customised for a wide range of applications such as common gun tower, multi barrel rocket launcher, missile firing unit and short range surface to air missile among several others.
Vernon Noronha, vice president, defence & government business, Tata Motors said, “We are extremely encouraged by the country’s thrust towards ‘indigenisation’, which not only helps strengthen the country’s defence manufacturing base, but also emphasises on cost-effective maintenance, serviceability and upgradation of defence equipment.”
Noronha continued, “We are proud to have received an additional order for 619 units of our indigenously developed Tata 6X6 HMVs, which successfully competed against products from rival bidders from top European and global defence companies.”
This is clearly a shot-in-the-arm for the company which is developing several products to promote manufacturing of defence equipment within the country under the ‘Make In India’ initiative of the central government.
The company will also be participating in DefExpo which will be beginning today in Quitol, Quepem.
