The Indian Army's beleaguered artillery modernisation programme has been revitalised by the Narendra Modi government as the Defence Acquistion Council (DAC) on Saturday gave a goahead to invite fresh bids for 814 mounted gun systems estimated to be worth Rs. 15,750 crore.

The apex decision making body on military purchases met for the first time under the chairmanship of new Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who promised fast and transparent decisions to clear a pile of backlog. To speed up decisions, Parrikar now plans to hold DAC decisions more frequently instead of once a month.

India has not bought a single piece of artillery ever since the Bofors scandal in the late 1980s. The jinx may finally be broken with the fresh decision to make the guns in India with foreign collaboration. The process to buy guns has been derailed at least half a dozen times on allegations of corruption.

Several Indian companies are in the contention for the contract including TATA SED with its 155mm truck mounted gun system and L&T-Ashok Leyland-Nexter 155 mm gun. As per an earlier plan, the initial 100 guns were to be imported and the remaining 714 to be produced in India.

The Army is looking to replace its old 105 mm light fields guns with a mix of towed, mounted and wheeled artillery. Bids have already been invited for 155mmx52 calibre towed guns. The process to acquire truck mounted guns would now start afresh.

The Army's 2000 existing 105 mm guns need to be replaced. Through these options, it was hoped to complete the new purchases by 2027. The total cost of artillery modernisation is estimated to be over Rs. 35,000 crore. Officials hoped that the new initiative would make some headway to end the gun crisis in the Army.

However, the IAF will have to wait till next month to get approval for its two major aircraft procurement programmes. The IAF seeks to replace its ageing fleet of the Avro aircraft. The decision could be taken in the next DAC meeting on December 9 or 10.