Technology in Tatra trucks 'outdated': MoD-CBI team

Rahul Tripathi : New Delhi, Mon Jun 04 2012, 02:35 hrs

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/technology-in-tatra-trucks-outdated-modcbi-team/957584/0

A joint team of the Ministry of Defence and CBI, which recently visited the defence PSU, BEML, at four locations near Bangalore, has found that an “obsolete technology” was being used for manufacturing Tatra trucks.

The four-member team visited BEML plants at Bangalore, Mysore, Kolar Gold Fields and Palakkad.

The joint team included three colonel-level officers from Defence Procurement and Wartime Equipment, MoD. The team will shortly submit a detailed report.

Sources said the indigenisation target of Tatra trucks, as agreed upon in the documents signed in 1987, 1997 and 2003, have not been met so far.

According to the contracts signed by BEML with Tatra Sipox, it was agreed upon that more than 80 per cent of indigenisation of the trucks should have been completed before 2003. It has been learnt that the cabin, backbone tube and half swing axle being used in the trucks are still being imported. The axle and backbone are being supplied by Slovakia and the cabin by Czech Republic. “According to terms of agreement, Tatra Siphox, UK, is responsible for procurement of these items which form nearly 60 per cent of the trucks being supplied to the Army,” said a senior official.

The technology used in these trucks is ‘obsolete’, and when the BEML signed a new agreement in 2003, they agreed for a 10-year-old expertise, said sources. The 2003 agreement was signed after BEML CMD V R S Natarajan took over the company.

The team also examined some BEML officials at different plants to understand the transfer of technology.

The agency has learnt that transfer of technology was part of the original agreement between BEML and Czech company Tatra, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for supply of the trucks, in 1986. However, Natarajan signed the new contract and is alleged to have misled the defence PSU into signing a fresh agreement in 2003 with UK-based Tatra Sipox, an intermediary firm and not an OEM.

The MoD-CBI team examined the contracts between BEML and Tatra. Sources said the team has sought details regarding parts assembled by BEML in manufacturing of trucks at the Palakkad unit. The trucks are being manufactured for the past two years, said sources.

The CBI registered a case on March 30 into the alleged irregularities in procurement of Tatra trucks and named Vectra chairman Ravinder Rishi and unnamed officials of the MoD, Army and BEML.

The FIR said undue benefit was given by BEML to Tatra when the former paid in euro instead of US dollars, resulting in a loss of nearly Rs 4 crore to the government.