New Delhi: The Indian Army expects domestic private players to establish an ammunition production set-up parallel to the existing government-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), a senior official said on Thursday.
The Army also expects timeliness, quality and fair play from domestic private companies during the procurement of indigenous arms and ammunition, Lt Gen S K Upadhya, Master General of Ordnance, Indian Army, said.
During a webinar, Upadhya said competition comes in during the bidding process and at that stage, "there are elements in the industry who would rather ensure that the other person does not get a contract rather than work towards getting a contract".
"When that happens, the timelines increase and it slightly complicates our work", he added.
He further said, "If the industry can get into a mode of fair participation, we will be happier about it". Upadhya was addressing the webinar titled 'Indigenisation Requirements of Indian Army' organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce.
Upadhya said the Army used to depend on the OFB completely for the ammunition supply. "And whatever was not there in the OFB, we used to import," he added.
He asked private domestic companies to set up a parallel ammunition supply chain.
"OFB is any case available to us. We want a parallel capacity to come up. It may not be at the scale of the OFB. But to start with, at least a parallel set up should come and various types of ammunition would then be available from industry which can then settle down and in the times to come, a scaling up can take place," he noted.