Major shake-up in Army’s repair echelons this year

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 12

The Army’s repair and maintenance echelon will see a major shake-up this year with some establishments being shut down and others being handed over to private contractors.

Four Army base workshops (ABWs) will be corporatised on the government owned contractor operated (GOCO) model by April, according to information placed in Parliament by the Ministry of Defence recently. These are the 506 ABW at Jabalpur, 508 ABW at Allahabad, 510 ABW at Meerut and 512 ABW at Kirkee.

The remaining four workshops that include 505 ABW at Delhi, 507 ABW at Kankinari, 509 ABW at Agra and 515 ABW at Bengaluru would follow suit by December.

First established during the Second World War, seven ABWs are responsible for repairs and overhaul of weapons, vehicles and equipment, while the eight (515 ABW) is engaged in the indigenisation of spares and manufacture of simulators.

Under provisions of GOCO, mooted in 2017, the infrastructure and facilities of ABWs will remain under the ownership of the government while the contractors will be responsible for the day-to-day operations, plant maintenance and meeting targets. This is part of the government’s plan to rationalise Army manpower and reduce the “tail” as recommended by the Lt Gen DB Shekatkar committee.

Handing over ABWs to private contractors will result in a large number of technical officers up to the rank of Brigadier as well as other ranks as being moved out. Consequently, the control of these establishments is expected to move from Army Headquarters to the Ministry of Defence.

In addition, two Army Advance Base Workshops at Udhampur near Jammu and Narangi near Guwahati are to be closed down by March this year. The same month will also see the Static Workshop at Delhi being disbanded, according to the Ministry’s statement. Further, 29 out of the 31 station workshops are to be “optimised” by restructuring their administrative set up and redeploying manpower.