As its workshops close down, Army looks at supporting ventures by ex-servicemen to meet its needs

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

With many unit-run workshops in peace stations being done away with as part of its restructuring and rationalisation of resources, the Army is considering to support entrepreneurial ventures by ex-servicemen to meet its requirements of repair and maintenance of vehicles and other equipment.

The first of its kind ventures, which are required to be self-sustaining, are aimed to serve the equipment sustenance needs of the armed forces in peace stations on a long term subsidised rate contract. These would run under the aegis of the Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR), which already runs several schemes for the rehabilitation of veterans.

“Consequent to optimisation of station workshops, there is requirement of a dependable and reliable engineering support eco-system for undertaking repair of vehicles and equipment of units and establishments functioning on peace establishment.

“Creation of ex-servicemen run workshops is one such viable option, which can not only provide a one stop solution for maintenance and repair of equipment of non-field force, but also offer a second career to skilled ex-servicemen of the armed forces,” stated a concept paper floated by the Army.

Recommendations of the Shekatkar Committee on reforming the armed forces included restructuring of repair echelons in the Army, which covered base workshops, advance base workshops and static or station workshops that are run by the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers.

While some smaller workshops are to be closed down, the large establishments like Army Base Workshops are to be handed over to private contractors for functioning under the ‘Government Owned Contractor Operated’ model.

The proposal initially envisages repair and maintenance of vehicles of the armed forces, and thereafter expand the scope of activities to cover a wide range of other equipment such as generators, electronic, computer hardware, air conditioners, cellular phones etc.

To make the venture financially viable, the facilities of the workshops can be extended to other government organisations and the workshops would also be allowed to cater to private clientele.

The Army is now seeking the view and opinions of interested ex-servicemen to identify their aspirations and outline the modalities of such ventures.

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