BEML to Make Light Infantry Vehicles for Combat, Patrol

The public sector company also expects to roll out indigenously made 'bullet' train by 2026

- Subhash Narayan & Rituraj Baruah

State-run manufacturer BEML Ltd is working on developing light-infantry vehicles for combat, reconnaissance and patrol as it expects procurement of launch platforms for missiles, including the Brahmos, to rise, said its chairman and managing director Shantanu Roy in an interview.

The listed firm, formerly known as Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, is also expecting more orders for high-mobility vehicles to carry heavy equipment and armoured recovery vehicles in the wake of the India-Pakistan conflict.

The public sector undertaking hopes to roll out India's first long-distance, semi-high-speed trains (Vande Bharat) in a sleeper coach configuration and bullet trains by December 2026, added Roy.

"High-speed train (bullet train) will be manufactured in Bengaluru. We are in the design stage. We would like to start manufacturing by September 2025. We will try that the first car body, the first shell, should be ready in the current fiscal year by February-March 2026. Actually, we have to build two trains, eight coaches each."