Rajnath Singh Launches ₹472-Crore T-72, T-90 Tank Overhaul Plant in Jabalpur to Fill Army Maintenance Gap
Jabalpur / New Delhi, August 27, 2026 — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday performed the bhoomi pujan for a ₹472-crore T-series tank overhaul facility at Vehicle Factory Jabalpur (VFJ), a unit of Mini Ratna defence PSU Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL).
The new plant is being built to overhaul 80 T-72 Ajeya and T-90 Bhishma main battle tanks a year. Together with the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) at Avadi in Tamil Nadu, which currently handles about 150 tanks annually, the Jabalpur line is intended to bridge the Army’s long-running shortfall in tank overhaul capacity, estimated at roughly 230 tanks a year.
Officials present at the ceremony included Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar and AVNL Chairman and Managing Director Satyabrata Mukherjee.
Why the new facility matters
A tank overhaul is far more than routine servicing. It is a factory-level rebuild in which engines, transmissions, running gear, fire-control systems, armour fittings and other life-limited assemblies are inspected, repaired or replaced so that an ageing platform can re-enter service with a fresh operational cycle.
Until now, most of that work has been concentrated at HVF in Avadi. The factory has supplied around 4,400 tanks to the Army over four decades, while AVNL as a group already has about 25 years of experience in overhauling T-72 and T-90 variants. But with a single-site throughput of about 150 overhauls against an annual requirement of around 230, the Army has faced a structural gap of roughly 80 tanks — the exact capacity the Jabalpur project is designed to add.
That shortfall has practical consequences. Tanks waiting for overhaul remain in the maintenance pipeline instead of being available with operational formations. The new plant is therefore meant as a readiness measure: it should reduce waiting times, create a second overhaul node and ensure that disruption at one factory does not stall the entire fleet.
Jabalpur also offers logistical advantages. Singh said the location would “significantly reduce transportation time and logistical requirements for tank overhaul and maintenance,” lowering the cost and delay involved in moving 40-plus-tonne vehicles across the country.
The facility is planned with a modern plant and a dedicated testing track for inspection and operational trials after overhaul. Local reports suggest construction will take about two years. In the interim, VFJ is expected to undertake the complete overhaul and upgradation of about 12 T-72 tanks a year until the full line becomes operational.
A pilot project had already begun
The foundation stone event follows an earlier pilot at VFJ authorised by AVNL in April-May 2025. As part of that trial, the factory set up the required technical infrastructure, sent more than 30 employees for specialised training and overhauled two T-72 tanks in about nine months. The work included inspection, repair and replacement of components to Army specifications before the tanks were handed back to the service.
That pilot served as the proof of concept for expanding VFJ from vehicles and engines into full T-series tank rebuilds. Established in 1969, the factory initially produced Shaktiman 3-tonne trucks with Germany’s MAN and Nissan 1-tonne and Jonga vehicles with Japan’s Nissan. The complex spans about 330 acres, with an adjoining estate of around 600 acres. Over time, VFJ has produced more than 1,000 T-72 engines and supported T-90 assembly, giving it a mechanical and armour-vehicle base on which the new overhaul line will build.
Part of a broader restoration plan
The Jabalpur plant is one component of a wider five-year restoration and modernisation pipeline being offered to industry by the Army. Around 790 T-72 tanks are slated for restoration at a cost of more than ₹13,000 crore, with AVNL — including VFJ — expected to execute the work with support from a large MSME and startup ecosystem. Another 200 T-90 tanks are planned for phased restoration at an estimated ₹56,000 crore. Separate work on BMP infantry combat vehicles has been assigned to AVNL’s Ordnance Factory Medak.
Those requirements explain why a second overhaul factory is not optional. India still fields a large Soviet-origin armour inventory, including roughly 1,700 T-72s and the T-90 Bhishma fleet, even as newer platforms are inducted and the Army experiments with Future Ready Combat Vehicles. Until those replacements arrive in significant numbers, the existing tanks remain central to strike formations. Keeping them overhauled — and gradually fitted with improved sensors and battlefield systems — is how the Army sustains combat power in the interim.
Tanks, drones and the combined-arms battlefield
During the ceremony, Singh rejected the notion that tanks have become irrelevant in an era dominated by drones, missiles and precision munitions.
“Our Army is one of the most powerful forces in the world. T-72 and T-90 tanks are extremely important for ground warfare. They stand like an iron wall on our borders,” he said, adding that they remain a “death knell for the enemy” and a source of morale for troops deployed in forward areas.
He described modern war as a combined-arms contest rather than a single-platform race, bringing together tanks, infantry, artillery, drones, air power, surveillance and precision weapons. That, he said, is the logic behind the Army’s Integrated Battle Groups. Tanks, he added, must be equipped with better sensors and capabilities suited to that environment. The government’s approach, Singh said, is to provide soldiers with drones, missiles, artillery, electronic warfare, energy weapons and modernised tanks, and to ensure they work together. “This overhaul facility will advance this vision,” he said.
The point is not only to keep older platforms running. Overhaul work also creates an opportunity to insert upgrades — including improvements in fire control, protection, communications and situational awareness — without waiting for a completely new tank design.
Industrial and strategic significance for Jabalpur
Singh also positioned the project within the government’s broader push for Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence, arguing that India should increasingly make, repair, maintain and upgrade its equipment at home rather than remain dependent on foreign depots and spare-parts chains. He said defence production has risen to around ₹1.80 lakh crore in FY 2025-26 from ₹46,000 crore in 2014, while exports have increased to about ₹39,000 crore from less than ₹1,000 crore a decade ago.
For Jabalpur and the surrounding region, the intended effect is industrial as well as military. Overhauling T-72s and T-90s will create demand for mechanical, electrical, electronic and hydraulic components, as well as assemblies and subsystems. According to the ministry, the sourcing base is expected to draw in MSMEs, strengthen the supply chain and generate work for technicians, workers, young people and small entrepreneurs in and around the city. Singh said the goal is to make Jabalpur “a major hub for defence technology, maintenance, modernisation and manufacturing.”
He also referred to Madhya Pradesh’s wider defence-industrial plans, including 3,073 hectares identified in the Gwalior-Chambal region and proposed investments of more than ₹16,960 crore, along with the state’s investor-summit and single-window system. Chief Minister Yadav said the Jabalpur investment would strengthen the state’s defence ecosystem and expand MSME participation.
What closing the gap means in practice
On paper, the combined capacity of 150 tanks at Avadi and 80 at Jabalpur matches the Army’s stated annual requirement of 230 overhauls. In practice, the outcome will depend on whether the new line is commissioned on schedule, whether it matches HVF’s long-established standards and whether the MSME supply chain can support both factories without imported bottlenecks in critical assemblies.
If the project delivers as planned, the Army will have a geographically split overhaul system, with Avadi in the south and Jabalpur in central India, closer to many operational holdings and with less time lost moving tanks by rail. The T-72 and T-90 fleets, which still form the bulk of Indian armour, could then be kept in a more sustainable rebuild cycle while larger modernisation contracts proceed in parallel.
That is the maintenance gap the ₹472-crore facility is intended to close: not a shortage of tanks on paper, but a shortage of factory capacity to keep them ready for service.
