Madras, Jan. 19: An entirely Indian made tank, “Main Battle Tank”, is being deployed at the Avadi Tank Factory and will be in service with the Indian Armoured Corps during the eighties’, Mr. V.C. Shukla, Union Minister for Defence Production, said here to-day. Mr. Shukla, who was talking to pressmen at Avadi, said the tank would be the second generation of the world famous ‘Vijayanta’ tank now in service with the Indian Army. The new tank would be of entirely Indian design and manufactured without any foreign help. In developing the new tank, the Defence Minister had taken into consideration the various scientific and technical knowhow that would be available in the field, he said. The Union Minister said that the modern trend was to manufacture tanks with greater fire power, ability to be more mobile and at the same time capable of greater manoeuvrability and provided with gadgets capable of loading more ammunition on it.
