Defence Minister clears Rs 60 crore proposal for truck scanners

NEW DELHI: Defence Ministry today cleared a proposal worth Rs 60 crore to procure two full-body truck scanners for the Military Intelligence, which is expected to deploy the equipment to scan cargo coming from across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The proposal for procuring the scanners was cleared at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony.

The scanners will enhance the capability of the army to detect arms and ammunition and chemicals also, they said.

The scanning equipment is required by the force to be deployed at places in Jammu and Kashmir where cross-border trade routes have been opened across the LoC, sources said.

After the clearance of the proposal today, the Army will now issue a global Request for Proposal (RFP).

"There is an urgent requirement to procure and install full-body truck scanners to scan trucks with goods, including driver's cabin, without unloading and unpacking the cargo to avoid illegal transshipment of restricted items like arms, ammunition and chemicals," the army had recently said in a global Request for Information.

The army has been working to procure these equipment for a long time but two similar attempts have failed. It was close to finalising a contract in this regard in 2010 but the process had to be scrapped after allegations of corruption.

The army wants that the scanners should also be able to detect radioactive and nuclear material as well as sniff out various explosives, different types of detonators, circuits, electronic components and chemicals.