Tuesday, May 10 2005 08:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Eighteen years after their induction in the Indian Army, the Bofors 155 MM guns are overdue for overhauls and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped the Defence Ministry for possessing inadequate capacity and support system to carry out measures to prolong the life of the guns.

The failure of the Government to overhaul these guns, which proved a major factor in the Kargil conflict, the CAG said, had "adversely affected" the operational preparedness.

After blacklisting of the original Bofors Company, these guns were being overhauled within the country by the 506 Army Base Workshop, which had imported ATE Factron 720 system from the UK at a cost of Rs 7.2 crore.

Pointing that the Workshop had so far overhauled only 12 guns so far, the CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament, said at the current rate, it would take the Workshop decades to overhaul the entire fleet of Army guns.

"The capacity itself is very low to fulfil the overhaul requirement of Bofors guns," the CAG said.

The CAG's comments assume significance as the Government has recently lifted the blacklisting of the company, which has changed hands and is currently owned by SWS Defence with a substantial equity participation by a US company.

"With the inadequate capacity and support available, it would take decades to overhaul the entire population of these guns. Thus large number of the guns are likely to be held without overhaul, adversely affecting their operational preparedness," the CAG pointed out.

Observing that the Bofors guns' test equipment ATE Factron 720 was a "critical requirement" for their overhaul and repair, it said the system, which was imported in 1989, had "developed snags in 1997 and was yet to be repaired".

In the absence of the ATE Factron system, the tests were carried out manually, which required more time besides limiting the scope and reliability of testing, it said.

Besides these artillery guns, the report also pointed towards "significant underperformance" in regard to repair and overhaul of tanks, infantry combat vehicles, transport vehicles and other equipment.

"They missed the targets of overhaul by 40 to 68 per cent during 1999-2004," the CAG said.

It said the "inefficient performance left the Army with accumulation of large number of repairable tanks, combat vehicles and guns, which could affect their battle readiness".

The CAG recommended the norms for estimating the capacity of the base workshops and the yardstick for overhaul of the tanks were "slack and need to be tightened".

"Besides, the Army and the base workshops need to pay attention to advance planning and procurement/manufacture of the spares required for repair and overhaul," it said.