Facing the problem of getting spares and maintaining the fleet of Tatra trucks, which got mired in bribery allegations, the government is likely to buy the vehicles directly from the original Czech manufacturer instead of procuring them through agent firms.

The Government has been forced to have a rethink as the operational preparedness of the armed forces was getting affected after procurement was put on hold a year back and a CBI probe was ordered. 

This came about after the then Army Chief General VK Singh alleged that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by a former Army officer to clear a tranche of Tatra trucks sold by one of the agent companies Tatra Sipox, based in UK.

With the validity of a pact between Bangalore-based PSU BEMl and Tatra Sipox got over on December 17, the Defence Ministry is now planning to procure the trucks from the original equipment manufacturer Tatra Truck Company in the Czech Republic, sources said here on Wednesday. 

Earlier, BEMl used to procure trucks through the UK-based company and as per plans, BEMl will procure the trucks from the Czech manufacturer, they said. India had also held parleys with the company to buy it out for meeting the requirements of its armed forces but the manufacturer refused to sell it, sources said.

As regards the proposal to buy trucks from the manufacturer, they said due to the CBI probe and a temporary ban on further procurements from the UK-based company, the maintenance of the fleet of over 6,500 Tatra trucks was getting adversely affected due to lack of spares and other parts.

The ban on these heavy duty trucks had led to delay in the setting up of missile regiments for the Army and the IAF. Moreover, major programmes which got delayed included  Pinaka multi- barrel rocket launchers, BrahMos supersonic cruise missile regiments for the army and the IAF, Swati weapon locating radars for the army and Agni and Prithvi missile programmes of DRDO.

In fact, the then DRDO chief VK Saraswat said last year after the ban that the Tatra trucks were ideally suited for carrying the Agni and Prithvi missiles in all kinds of terrain and he planned to buy more trucks as a follow-on order. 

Senior armed officials repeatedly vouched for the utility of Tatra trucks maintaining that the vehicles could negotiate all kinds of terrain including mountainous roads and deserts.  Moreover, many missile tests are carried out in deserts and other such places and Tatra trucks are the only vehicles capable of carrying these missiles to the launching site traversing through rugged terrain.

The Government, through BEMl, had bought more than 7,000 vehicles from Tatra between 1986 and 2012. Of them, owing to special circumstances during ‘Operation Parakram’ in the wake of the 2001 terror attack on Parliament, nearly 1,950 vehicles were purchased between 1999 and 2002.

Meanwhile, Russian and Belorussian firms offered their trucks to the Defence Ministry in the last few months as a replacement for Tatra as the Russian and Belorussian made trucks carry their strategic missiles. However, the government is yet to take a decision regarding these offers, officials said.