Problems with Tatra Trucks
Even as Army chief General V K Singh's claim about a bribery offer led to a national uproar, there has been a series of complaints of problems with Tatra trucks from various agencies that use them.
TOI is in possession of five secret letters in which the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), ordinance depots, Indian Air Force and Border Roads Organisation have rattled off a litany of defects found in Tatra trucks purchased recently. BEML has been grappling to fix the problems in the trucks, highly placed sources said.
In the last week of March, Gen Singh had claimed that he was offered a bribe of Rs14 crore to clear the supply of 600 sub-standard Tatra trucks. The same week, on March 28, the SFC headquarters wrote to BEML about major defects in eight Tatra trucks purchased from BEML's Bangalore unit. SFC is the custodian of all nuclear capable strategic weapons such as Agni missiles.
In the letter, the SFC said the trucks had nagging problems relating to cabin lifting pump. Sources said that in some trucks, the cabin lifting was not stable, making the fleet unusable for crucial tasks like radar monitoring. "If the truck is unstable, then the radar monitoring goes for a toss, because for monitoring, the vehicle has to be stabilized. In these trucks, the cabin lifting is erratic," said an Army source.
The SFC also complained about the poor quality of parts in the truck. In one truck, the steering wheel came off during the test drive while the entire body of some trucks had dents all over and greasing of the fleet was also not done. The fleet was earmarked for SFC operations and correction of the defects is underway.
Similarly, the IAF also wrote to BEML about technical defects in Tatra trucks. On March 26, the IAF station in Bhaisiana, Bhatinda complained about faults with hand brakes and ignition-starter malfunction in three trucks which are under guarantee period. The IAF also wrote about problems like hard steering, wheel wobbling at 50 km/hr speed and engine knocking and problems with the clutch.
In another letter, the DG, BRO, that purchased 50 trucks recently pointed to repeated engine failure and engine oil leaks. BEML was informed about the engine failure instances reported in two places -- Manali in Himachal Pradesh and Gauchar in Uttarakhand.
The latest complaint, on April 16, was made by the central ordinance depot (COD) Dehu Road, where the commandant stopped payment after finding that an engine had stalled. Along with the letter, BEML was also sent photographs of numerous damaged spare parts received recently and was asked for speedy replacement.
Complaints pile up against Tatra trucks - The Times of India