Islamabad : To overcome the challenges of modern times . Heavy Industry Taxila(HIT) has commenced to prepare second generation of state of art country made tanks Al-Khalid -2.
This was told to the Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production on Thursday. The meeting was apprised that the annual production of Al-Khalid tanks plunge down to 18 from 50 per annum due to lack of budget.
The meeting of Senate Standing Committee was held at Parliament House on Thursday with its chairman Senator Lt. Gen. (Retd) Abdul Qayyum was on chair, in which the acting chairman of HIT Brig Tahir Islam and Brig Nauman gave detailed briefing on the performance ,functioning and projects of their institution.
The meeting was told that JHIT has the capacity to build 50, same number of Armed Personnel Vehicles (APC) and overhauling of 100 tanks per year. HIT started Al-Khalid 220 tank in 2016 , which would be completed in 2023 in two phases . “ HIT prepares tank with the cost of 30 million dollars, whereas the price of Korean tank is 12 million dollars , but technical performance of Al-Khalid Tank is far better than Korean one”
The committee was also informed that performance wise Al-Khalid 2 would not less than any of its contemporary tanks. The renovation projects of 108 tanks was started by HIT in 2015. , whereas the second phase the project would be kicked off in 2018.
HIT has also announced to supply bullet proof jackets to all the members of the standing committee.
The committee has appreciated the achievements and projects by Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and has recommended that the budget disbursement process to HIT may be made smoother and quicker to achieve more viability and fast pace of work.
Chairman Committee while terming Al-Khalid Tank pride of the nation praised the proposal of bringing an upgraded and progressive model Al-Khalid-2 in the industry to compete with constantly developing weaponry. The Committee was told that the HIT has a capacity of 50 tanks per year but they are making 18 tanks on average due to budgetary constraints.
The Committee strongly recommended that the allocation of budget to defence production industries should come directly to ministry of defence production from the finance division instead of routing through the ministry of defence and bureaucratic delays should be removed. Chairman Committee observed that the Committee will push for this proposal on its own but HIT also need to take the matter up regularly.
The Committee was told that HIT is not entitled to commercial activity on its own. It can only carry out commercial activities from the surplus capacity after fulfilling all kinds of defence needs of armed forces. Brig. Nauman further stated that a draft amendment in the ordinance for exemption from government audit and PPRA rules and provision of taking up commercial activities to make the industry financially profitable. The Committee agreed to the proposals of HIT and recommended that they can adopt a proposal on the same lines as Pakistan Ordnance Factories.
The Committee lauded the efforts of HIT and observed that defence production establishments in Pakistan have made tremendous contributions not only by equipping our Armed Forces but also by undertaking commercial sales. Equipping our Armed Forces with tanks, and state of the art ammunitions not only means colossal savings but also promotes self-reliance, observed the Chairman Committee Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum. The Committee advised the HIT leadership to do capacity building of their vendors, ensure coordination inter and intra defence production institutions and create a reserve pool of skilled work forces to meet sporadic demands.