India to procure 600 armoured recovery vehicles for T-72 tanks

"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.