NEW DELHI: At the time when the Indian Army is modernising its offensive capabilities, specifically in the Artillery and the Armoured Regiments, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit exercise has reported “shortfall of barrels and breech mechanisms ranging from 30-100 per cent of the production capacity” during 2015-22. A delay in the supply of ammunition has also been noticed. The CAG audit also found that augmentation of production capacity of large calibre weapons in ordnance factories “could not be completed (January 2023)” even though an expenditure of Rs 292.32 crore (Rs 253.13 crore P&M + Rs 39.19 crore civil works)” was incurred. The CAG has advised the Ministry of Defence and Defence public sector undertakings to “work out a revised time frame and put in place a strengthened monitoring mechanism to achieve project deliverables.” The report for the period ended March 2021 was tabled in Parliament during the winter session. “Inordinate time was taken in execution of the civil works and procurement/ receipt/ commissioning of plant and machineries, especially the Electro Slag Refining (ESR) plant along with its linked machines at Field Gun Factory Kanpur (FGK) and five important machines at Metal & Steel Factory Ishapore (MSF),” it said.The delays, including the “non-commissioning of the ESR plant at FGK and sub-optimal capacity of production of ESR slugs at MSF had a cascading effect on the entire supply line of components,” the report said. Ordnance Factories were unable to supply even the truncated targets of two Guns — X58 and X60. “Slippages in supply of guns for the ‘B’ and ‘E’ tanks to Heavy Vehicle Factory at Avadi in Tamil Nadu were partly responsible for the shortfall in the issue of ‘B’ and ‘E’ tanks to the Army,” the report added.Barrels are used for guns in the Artillery regiment and spare barrels are used for the T-72 and T-90 tanks of the Armoured regiment. Weapons are categorised as small arms, medium calibre and large calibre depending on the size of the barrel bore.The audit done on production of propellants in ordnance factories found that there was delay in supply of ammunition as well. A propellant is an essential part of any ammunition, which determines its range.The propellant factories are required to meet their targets by January of each year. However, they failed to do so, impacting production schedules of ammunition filling factories.The CAG audit “observed delay in issue of propellants to the filling factories by January and March each year in 67 per cent and 43 per cent instances. Three ammunition and one rocket valuing Rs 1,053 crore could not be issued to the Armed Forces mainly due to short supply of propellants worth Rs 276 crore from the sister factories”.
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