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Army bosses get additional 240 vehicles

by Staff Reporter
25 Sep 2015 at 12:46hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) will soon receive an additional 240 vehicles purchased from Indian automobile company, Ashok Leyland Ltd.

About 90 of the vehicles will be allocated to lieutenant-colonels and senior army chiefs. The remainder will go to different military units.

The vehicle were purchased through the Tourism ministry under the disguise of promotion of domestic tourism and supporting international tourism, disaster management, anti-poaching activities, peace missions and other related purposes.

In July, the government acquired 633 vehicles, which included all-terrain troop-carrying trucks, water cannons, buses and equipment, mostly used by military and police worth an estimated US$50 million.

Ashok Leyland was awarded the contract for supply of the vehicles by Zimbabwe, including military and police vehicles.

The contract was financed by India's Exim Bank through its buyer's credit facility under national export insurance account to the tune of US$49,92 million extended to Zimbabwe's Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

A military source said some of the new vehicles would be used to fulfil a backlog in the allocation of cars to lieutenant colonels and other senior officers.

"The cars are expected within the next two weeks. The army will receive 240 and from our understanding 90 will be allocated to lieutenant colonels and other senior officers," a senior military officer said.

Source - Zimbabwe Independent