Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday (August 27, 2026) laid the foundation stone for a ₹472-crore project to establish facilities for overhauling T-72 and T-90 tanks at the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur, located in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district. The project is aimed at augmenting the Army’s capacity to keep its armoured fleet operationally ready.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav joined Mr. Singh at the ceremony at the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur, a unit of the Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL). Mr. Mr. Singh also called for existing tanks to be equipped with superior sensors and modern battlefield capabilities.
He highlighted the contribution of the Heavy Vehicles Factory in Avadi, which has supplied around 4,400 tanks to the Army over four decades. The AVNL, he said, had 25 years of experience in overhauling T-72 and T-90 variants and should set higher benchmarks in quality, productivity and innovation.
Singh said the project reflected India’s growing technological and industrial capabilities and would strengthen Jabalpur’s position as a hub for defence maintenance, modernisation and manufacturing. He said the changing character of warfare, marked by drones, precision-guided weapons, missiles, satellites, artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities, had not diminished the relevance of tanks, but had changed the way they would be employed. “Modern warfare demands combined capabilities rather than dependence on a single platform,” he said, stressing the need to integrate tanks with infantry, artillery, drones, air power, surveillance and precision weapons. He said the government’s focus was to provide the armed forces with modernised tanks alongside drones, missiles, artillery, electronic warfare and energy weapons.
Expected boost for MSMEs
The new facility will have the capacity to overhaul 80 tanks annually, according to the Ministry of Defence. The Army requires around 230 tanks to be overhauled every year, and the Heavy Vehicles Factory in Avadi, a suburb of Chennai, currently has the capacity to overhaul 150 tanks annually. Singh said India’s defence production had risen to around ₹1.80 lakh crore in 2025-26 from ₹46,000 crore in 2014, while defence exports increased to approximately ₹39,000 crore from less than ₹1,000 crore. The project comes as the State seeks to expand defence manufacturing, with proposed investments of over ₹16,960 crore in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
The Jabalpur facility will, therefore, bridge the existing capacity gap and ensure faster availability of refurbished tanks to the Army. The project is also expected to generate opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) supplying mechanical, electrical, electronic and hydraulic components and services, creating a wider local defence-industrial ecosystem. Mr.
He said the government’s objective was to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains by manufacturing, repairing, maintaining and upgrading defence systems domestically.
