Capacity at the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF), Avadi, which manufactures heavy battlefield equipment for Indian Army, is being increased significantly even as the factory is gearing up to manufacture Main Battle Tank Arjun Mark II.

HVF is awaiting final confirmation from Army for Mark II, according to Hari Mohan, Senior General Manager. Some of the major components, chassis building, gear box and miscellaneous components will be part of the augmentation for which construction is going on and machinery is being procured, he told newspersons on the sidelines of a CII conference on Defence Manufacturing Technologies on the theme ‘Defence Indigenisation – Window of Opportunities’.

Revenue increase Mohan said HVF is likely to report a 60 per cent increase in revenue to nearly ₹2,400 crore this year, and next year, it will be nearly ₹3,000 crore. “We have been booked by Indian Army till 2035,” he said.

HVF has nearly 300 industry partners, of which 100 are in Tamil Nadu. Mohan said there are many items that HVF is yet to indigenise. There is ample business opportunity for the private sector.

“There are also severe capacity limitations for our existing vendors,” he said.

For supplying a major component that goes under the chassis of the battle tank, HVF had only one vendor, and is now developing Lucas TVS as another source in Chennai. All the components that go into the tanks are very technology intensive. “No failure is acceptable, and this is a challenge,” he said.

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